73: Reclaiming my identity and life a conversation with Ruchika Singh

Shownotes: What do people think of as they are coming to the end of their college/University degree? The future, a new life, new job, new friends, travel, and new adventures. And most people step into this beautiful but messy world full of hopes and dreams.  My guest this week on The Elephant in the Room podcast Ruchika Singh, had to press pause on the life she was looking forward to when she fell ill suddenly during exams in the last year of her engineering degree. Life ground to a halt as she was diagnosed with CNS Tuberculosis Meningitis. It meant fighting to survive and catastrophically losing vision as a side effect. The road to recovery has been a nearly decade long uphill battle and the social stigma and pressure has delayed her entry back into the life she dreamt for herself.In spite of having one the highest percentage of people with visual impairment in the world - India is woefully ill prepared with the requisite training, support, job opportunities, networks, infrastructure, accessibility to enable people to live a normal life - a life that most of us take for granted. There are systemic barriers to inclusion for people with disability, including lack of knowledge about visual impairment and outdated attitudes/perceptions amongst most people and potential employers. Stigma around any form of disability means millions of Indians are hidden, have no voice, no power and no decision making authority. Other people decide for them, choose for them, what they can or cannot do, about their passions and abilities - they are robbed of their identity. The struggle is everyday, to compromise on what you believe you can do and the reality of what you are able to do. Ruchika has not given up her ambition to have a fulfilling career. Like she says, ‘In another life. I may have joined some tech firm after completing my engineering. I deserve an opportunity to have a career and a fulfilling life.’Ever the optimist - she is dismayed by the lack of support from corporate India. Her attempt at employment in the behemoth that is the Indian tech Industry has been deeply demotivating and demoralising. - lack of response, zero engagement and an attempt to obfuscate on what disability actually means for the companies. She has a question for global and Indian tech companies - why talk about inclusion when you are not inclusive. And what use is technology innovation when it cannot enable her to live a better quality of life.  Every person deserves to be able to live life to their fullest potential - what can we do to make the world more inclusive for people who do not conform to what is considered the norm. I know Ruchika is brilliant, smart, intelligent, well read, ambitious - her visual impairment should not become a barrier to living the life she wants. And I am here ask - @Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Infosys, HCL, IBM, Dell, CISCO, TCS, Accenture, Wipro - what does inclusion mean to you?? It is time to show up and be counted - move beyond the tick-box.“I am going to keep trying on every day to live the life which I wanted to and which I deserve to. And you know, I'm not my disability, I'm smart, intelligent, and capable”Full disclosure - I know Ruchika since she was a child (she is a part of my extended familyMemorable passages from the episode:👉🏾 Thank you. Thanks a lot for inviting me 👉🏾 Let me tell you about Ruchika. I was a very normal girl, who loved dancing, singing, styling, reading. And hailed from a tier 2 city of India. I also...

Om Podcasten

The Elephant in the Room Podcast is a curated safe space to have uncomfortable conversations about the pervasive inequalities in society and our workplaces. The idea of the podcast was born from my sense of conflict about identity, self and the concept of privilege and fuelled by my own need to understand how my overlapping identities and experiences had impacted and would continue to impact my life chances. Two years ago I decided to ‘opt out’ to find my own purpose and focus on passion projects including learning about the systemic biases that are endemic in business and society. The Podcast is my very own listening project, a step towards being more intentional in my learning. The Elephant in the Room Podcast is for people who want to be a part of the change, for those who want to step up & speak out, for those who want to learn more about biases, barriers and best practice, for business leaders and for individuals, anyone who is interested in a fairer, more inclusive and compassionate society and workplace. Each week I will interview inspiring speakers from across the world on issues that are taboo and deserve to be mainstream including(but not limited to) systemic and institutionalised racism, discrimination based on further eight protected characteristics, poverty, mental health, climate change. The podcast will also talk about cognitive inclusion, culture, purpose, ethics and the importance of empathy, cultural intelligence and how conversations on identity and disadvantage would be incomplete without considering intersectionality. With the podcast I hope to share stories of people with lived experiences, stories that may have never been told, stories that galvanise us to take action for change and keep the conversations alive by raising the decibel on issues of inequity, inequality in our search for a fairer and more inclusive world.