According to the data of Census of India 2011, 21 million people in India are suffering from some kind of disability. The actual numbers may vary by a significant change in 2022. Only 36.3% of the population of people with disabilities work to earn money. It will shake you to know that more than 57% of the PwD population is illiterate and only 8% of the PwD population has completed fundamental education.
Shyam Narayan founded Qrishn with a motive to dissipate the personal and social problems that people with rare disabilities face in their life. Qrishn is a bootstrapped start-up that primarily focuses on providing skill development training to people with rare disabilities. The aim is to make PwRD educated, employed and financially independent.
The inspiration to support people with Qrishn came to Shyam through his personal struggle with a rare genetic bleeding disorder Haemophilia. Since his early teenage years, Shyam has been exploring the start-up ecosystem and eventually wanted to innovate something that helped the society in some way. Though he failed to pursue medical science himself, this did not deter his determination to bring a change that mattered to people.
Qrishn was born out of a life-threatening event that Shyam faced. He suffered with severe anaphylaxis attacks thrice within 6 months and went into depression. He tried to find out what led to this and eventually saw a larger picture of the problem. It opened his eyes to numerous people facing similar problems. What is worse is that there is no effective solution as there are various factors that partake in causing such problems. Shyam conducted surveys on his own and found out that there was hardly any awareness of the rare disease and almost no accessibility to correct treatments or the finances required to undertake a good treatment. Many patients even lost their lives. This moved Shyam from within.
Despite the type and severity of disability, PwD are compelled to live a substandard life. They are deprived from education, employment and do not socially engage as well. Shyam’s Qrishn provides training of monetizable skills that can be learned and worked with without troublesome physical engagement. The training classes are conducted online as well as offline in association with many NGOs and societies across the country.
Before being the founder of a social startup, Shyam is a patient of a rare disorder. With his start-up, he is bringing a positive impact in people’s lives and helping redeem the best out of them. Shyam has never allowed his disability to stop him from dreaming. He believes that people with disability deserve as much as any one else. His outstanding journey as a person and founder has allowed a lot of people to believe that they are not disabled but just differently abled. Shyam concludes saying, “There is a solution to every problem, we either need to find one or build one.”
