Dr. Jitender Aggarwal: A God to PwD’s!

Whenever we have any health issue, we think of one name, i.e., a doctor. We have that faith in them that they can save us. People always consider doctor as a God on earth. I too agree with this statement but how will a person behave if one loses any of the sense organs? Can you assume that one day when you open your eyes and your are not able to see anything? Your whole world gets dark, how are you going to react? A normal human being will start cursing God for all the misery in their life. But a real human is the one who don’t get into cursing others, but look at this as an opportunity to prove their mettle. Dr Jitender Aggarwal is one such great soul who became empathetic towards PwD (persons with disability) community.

Dr. Aggarwal, practising dental surgeon lost his vision due to macular degeneration of retina in the year 2004. For four years, he fought with the suffering that people with disabilities face on a daily basis. Some of the biggest limitations were non-inclusive environment and limited access to resources. Along with this he had to depend on others for his day-to-day work, which was taking toll on his mental and physical health. During 2004-2007 he was living a life of disabled person and tried to understand their plight. He found that the disabled are treated with charity but no one thought of their economic empowerment.

This is how the idea of Sarthak Centre came into existence. As said by Dr. Aggarwal, “When I lost my vision, I understood how much disabled person suffers daily. I decided to learn things well suited for my disability. I got myself trained in screen readers and other software to manage and execute daily chores through computers. Later in 2008 I pledged to empower PwD, so that they are not dependent on others and could live a respectable life. I opened 1^st Sarthak Centre in Delhi with the aim to provide skills and employing visually impaired candidates in the field of medical transcription.”

Till now his organisation Sarthak Educational Trust has helped more than 20000 people with disability to find jobs in different sectors, like retail, BPOs, IT and hospitality. During nation-wide lockdown Sarthak Foundation conducted many online counselling and therapy sessions, along with virtual services of training as many divyangs lost their jobs. They also developed a mobile app, so that these disabled people have easy access to information on schemes, jobs and skill training schemes.

With Dr. Aggarwal’s and his teams dedication, many PwD’s are earning their livelihood. This is why he got featured in “Karmyogi Special” series of “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. Meeting and getting support from Mega Star Shri Amitabh Bachchan is one big event happened in Dr.Aggarwal’s life. He along with his team is ready to launch many upcoming projects for the benefit of PwD.