Generating sustainable livelihood for disabled women in the conflict prone areaCurrent beneficiary strength: 150 women and children.

Ms.  Bhaotina Mushahary is the Co-Founder and Managing Trustee of the Action for Inclusion & Empowerment Trust (AIET) which was being founded and registered in 2014. She has completed her Diploma in Disability Studies, Graduation in Sociology and Pursuing LL.B. After having faced gender based violence herself, she has worked with Shishu Sarothi one of the most responsive organization dealing with the issue of disability rights. Inspired by two years of experience in the disability sector armed with a formal degree on it and with the vision of ending gender based violence, Ms. Bhaotina Mushahary has co-founded the AIET to work towards promoting rights of the Person with disability especially focusing on women with disability and marginalized women. She has now chosen to work in Kokrajhar which is a district devastated by protracted conflict to take the challenges of life head on.

Her work:  Action for Inclusion & Empowerment Trust (AIET) is born out of the quests to bring about small changes in its surroundings by group of young friends. The organisation was registered in August 2014 under Indian Charitable Trust Act of 1882. In Kokrajhar District (Assam), the founders having received formal training in D. Ed in disability, started working on rights of the person with disability.

In the district of Kokrajhar which is the capital district of Bodoland Territorial Council there are zero services for person with disability. Beginning from social exclusion, political exclusion to deprivation from all the services of education, health and employment, person with disable face extreme level of deprivation and marginalization in the district. More than the deprivation of material services, it is the absence in the social and political conscience of the area that pushes the disables especially the women with disability to the margin of their life. Since centuries now, this particular issue has failed to capture the public imagination and social-political discourse. But these are very obvious, as the women with disability are forced to remain confined into their so called family spaces due to extreme level of discrimination and prejudices. The sufferings are further accentuated in the district of Kokrajhar due to unending conflict and internal displacement. On one hand un-ending conflict leading to poor development indicators in general and on the other, challenges of being a disable that too women, one can imagine of the level of sufferings and crisis in life of the women with disabilities.

At such a critical situation, Ms. Bhaotina Mushahary, has co-founded the Action for Inclusion & Empowerment Trust (AIET) which has achieved the following so far-

• Formed Kokrajhar Disable Women Association which is an all women association with 21 Executive Members.
• Signed an MoU with Department of Education, Kokrajhar district for promoting inclusive school. 2 schools have been taken up for experimenting the model and teachers from 20 schools are trained on designing low cost Teaching Learning Materials for inclusive education.
• Formed two Self Help Groups of Disable Women and linked with National Urban Livelihood Mission.
• Facilitated issuing of disability certificate to 30 disable individuals.
• Organized workshop and training on life skills especially on sexual and reproductive health rights for more than 20 women with disability.