Social Entrepreneurs: A New Brand of Disability-Rights Activists

Javed Abidi had spent 18 months getting disability rights legislation to the Indian Parliament. But with the parties at a stalemate, he only had 72 hours to get them to cooperate. Most of his fellow activists told him it was futile. For a social entrepreneur like Abidi, however, the impossible is merely one more obstacle to overcome.

Javed Abidi had spent a year and a half fighting to create disability rights legislation in India, a country with at least 60 million persons with disabilities. The bill was ready to be voted on, but on December 19, 1995, with three days left in the Parliamentary session, the government and opposition were unwilling to cooperate. Abidi saw his goal slipping away. He roused his fellow activists to join him in a protest. "What difference can it make?" they asked. "It could make a difference," he responded. "Let us not go down without a fight." The next morning a few hundred protesters with disabilities met before Parliament. The media responded, and so did the politicians. The Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) bill was passed. "It was nothing less than a miracle," said Abidi. "India is a country where rallies of hundreds of thousands of people are not uncommon. Here was just a handful of people. But because they didn't stay home, it happened." They didn't stay home, of course, because Abidi wouldn't let them. [1]

What are social entrepreneurs?

Javed Abidi represents a different brand of activist: a social entrepreneur. With inexhaustible determination and revolutionary ideas, Abidi and others like him are solving problems around the world. "Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish, or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry," says Bill Drayton, founder and CEO of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. [2] Ashoka seeks out social entrepreneurs around the world and, after a rigorous selection process, names the best as Ashoka Fellows.

"Social entrepreneurs have existed throughout the ages," writes journalist David Bornstein in his new book, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas , published by Oxford University Press. Bornstein explains that what is new is the scope and availability of social entrepreneurship as a vocation, and as a global movement. His book profiles 10 innovators, tracing the influences and obstacles that led the entrepreneur to be an agent of social change. In Javed Abidi's case, he has drawn on the medical ignorance and employment discrimination he has experienced, as well as inspiration from other activists.

Abidi was born with spina bifida, and incorrectly told that he did not need surgery right away. This mistake led to nerve damage, and eventually Abidi was having trouble getting around. Doctors told him, unnecessarily, to stay in a wheelchair. This error caused a dangerous curvature of his spine, and cost him the ability to walk. "I am not angry or bitter," said Abidi. "If this kind of thing has happened to me - and I am one hundred times more privileged than the vast majority of disabled people in this country - what is happening to hundreds of thousands of other people? The point is: This country has to change ." After talking to disability activists in the United States, Abidi sparked a movement to end employment and accessibility discrimination. Abidi was elected an Ashoka Fellow in 1998, shortly after taking over the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People.* [3]

At least 83 Ashoka fellows involved in disability issues

Abidi, Ashoka, and How to Change the World indicate that there is a growing group of social entrepreneurs, and that this kind of activity is particularly suited to disability-related issues. Of the over 1400 Ashoka fellows worldwide, 83 work specifically on disability-related issues, including advocacy, access, and healthcare. To name a few, Amy Barzach creates accessible playgrounds in the U.S.**, Kevin Long trains teachers around the world to use sign language and techniques specific to their deaf students***, and Sonia Coutinho helps kids in Brazil with moderate learning disabilities transition to work. [4]

Bornstein not only profiles social entrepreneurs, but points out some of their shared characteristics. Social entrepreneurship relies on creative thinking and perseverance. Social entrepreneurs are marked by an ability to navigate obstacles. They are tireless advocates for their causes, constantly educating those around them. They must believe in their own abilities, yet be willing to collaborate and ask for help. In short, they must cultivate the traits that are common practice for those working on disability rights. Traits like those of Erzsébet Szekeres of Hungary, who is profiled in another chapter of How to Change the World .

Hungarian creates "new world"

Szekeres realized that her son, Tibor, who was born with both physical and mental disabilities, would have no future if she herself did not create an environment that included him. Starting in the early 1980s, Szekeres lobbied and applied tirelessly for grants, permits, and contracts. In 1989 she received funding from Hungary's Ministry of Welfare. Since then, Szekeres has created 21 living and working centers serving over 600 persons with multiple disabilities. The centers are based on one concept: total respect for the needs, wants, and abilities of each client. While this is exemplary in any context, her efforts are especially stark in Hungary. Jody Jensen, Ashoka's representative in Hungary, said, "To be a social entrepreneur under a communist regime in the field of disability in Hungary - I just find that astounding." [5]

Szekeres constantly modifies the work and living situations of her clients to meet their interests, and to maximize their responsibilities and freedoms. In the same way, she has never rested on her progress in disability rights, but is forever challenging her government and society to create a better, more integrated world for people with disabilities. And she makes this constant, large-scale progress while monitoring seemingly small issues. One of her employees, called helpers, wrote in a daily report, "Zoli has spent three afternoons this week watching TV, although he shouldn't be watching so much." Szekeres responded, "If no one tells you how to spend your free time, why do you feel you have the right to tell the disabled person how to spend his free time? [6]

David Bornstein says that "the single most moving moment I had while writing the book" was while he was researching Szekeres' work. In an interview for Changemakers.net, Bornstein describes the contrast between a state-run institution and Szekeres' centers:

[The state-run institution is] the kind of place where people look like the living dead. I met a man who was literally kept in a cage. Another was wrapped like a mummy because he kept scratching himself. Another looked like a grasshopper -- he was skin and bones... He was never taken outside. Nobody gave him physical therapy. It conjured up images to me of horrible places where people have done tests on human beings.

Maybe 45 minutes later, I arrived at Erzsébet's center... Three disabled people walked straight by me wearing jeans and t-shirts. They were having an animated conversation. You could hear music from radio stations. I ... saw people busy at work... eating lunch in the restaurant which looks like a pub.

It was so moving because I got a full sense of what a social entrepreneur can do. Create a new world. These people were no less disabled than the people in the state-run institution, but they were treated like human beings. You could understand that if this woman, Erzsébet Szekeres, had never been born, all those people would probably be languishing in institutions. It gave me a sense of the beauty that people can bring into the world. [7]

Szekeres says, "I tell people, 'If you really believe in something, you just have to do it and do it , because if I had given up one month prior to 1989, I would have ended up with nothing." [8] Similarly, if Javed Abidi had given up three days before the Indian Parliament voted on his disability rights bill, it never would have passed.

What do Szekeres, Abidi, and other social entrepreneurs have in common? They are accustomed to meeting daily challenges, constantly advocating for their causes, resourceful yet willing to seek assistance. Does this sound like a disability-rights activist, or a social entrepreneur? Both.

For more information:

How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein: www.howtochangetheworld.org

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public: www.ashoka.org

* National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People: www.ncpedp.org

** Boundless Playgrounds: www.boundlessplaygrounds.org

***Global Deaf Connection: www.deafconnection.org

[1] Bornstein, David., How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 219-220.

[2] Ashoka: Innovators for the Public , www.ashoka.org .

[3] Bornstein, 209-232.

[4] www.ashoka.org

[5] Bornstein, 98-104,110.

[6] Bornstein, 107.

[7] Kris Herbst, " Interview: David Bornstein 'How to Change the World'," January, 2004 (http://www.changemakers.net/journal/04january/)

[8] Bornstein, 104.

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