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"Losing is not failing. Giving up is failing,” said well-known social worker and disability rights activist, Malvika Iyer, as she wrapped up hosting this year’s India Inclusion Summit (IIS) in Bengaluru. It is a philosophy that has guided her from surviving a grenade blast at age 13 to becoming one of India’s most recognisable voices for inclusion.
She recalls her first stint hosting IIS in 2013, just months after she delivered her first public talk in Chennai, where, for the first time, she openly addressed her disability, her trauma and the years she spent trying to blend into a world that demanded ‘normalcy’. “It was after the first time I spoke openly about my disability, my struggles, the years I spent hiding my hands. I just wanted to be part of the conversation,” she shares.
This year, her opening segment earned her a standing ovation that lasted nearly five minutes, a moment she describes as ‘humbling and overwhelming’. But applause aside, Iyer hopes the audience walked away with a shared sense of responsibility. “Inclusion cannot be carried by a single person or sector. Caregivers, policymakers, educators, activists, journalists – everyone has a role to play,” says Iyer.
The systemic change she wants to see most urgently is nothing but accessibility in a broader sense. Whether in technology, public transport or built environments, accessibility determines whether a person with disability can participate fully in life. For her, a crucial moment was travelling by metro in Delhi for the first time. She says, “For most people, that’s routine, but for me, it was exhilarating freedom. For me, the power of access – to public spaces and technology changed my entire life.”
Her PhD research on the stigma surrounding disability revealed something she had long known intuitively: societal attitudes often disable a person more than their physical condition. “My missing hands never made me feel helpless. People’s pity did,” she states. Beyond disability rights, Iyer’s advocacy spans accessible fashion, mental health and equality in all means. “I’ve lived with PTSD and anxiety since 2018. People only see my missing hands, but the story goes deeper. We must talk about the invisible struggles, too,” she points out. Meanwhile, positive representation in media, she adds, has been crucial in changing this narrative in society – both for her and for young people who now grow up seeing disability beyond a lens of tragedy.
As the summit wrapped up, she reflected on how India is changing when it comes to being inclusive. “The word ‘disability’ is no longer whispered. It’s becoming normal – as it should,” she says. And that shift marks the quiet revolution many like her have spent working towards.
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