Mumbai, April 29, 2023. Tata Power Community Development Trust (TPCDT) hosted the first ever ‘Maharashtra Neurodiversity Meet’ in Mumbai under its flagship Pay Autention Autism Support initiative. Strengthening their efforts to empower the Autism support network in Maharashtra, the platform brought together over 50 institutions working on neurodiversity and Autism domains to collaborate for wider reach. The meet was inaugurated by Mr. Himal Tewari, CHRO, Chief Sustainability & CSR, Tata Power and was attended by thought leaders, NGO representatives, Anganwadi workers, corporates, and domain experts came together to share their experiences and add impetus to the Pay Autention efforts.
As per estimates by the Indian Council of Medical Research, India is home to more than ten million individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Pay Autention was launched in 2022 by Tata Power CDT in collaborations with the Center for Autism and other Disabilities Rehabilitation Research and Education (CADRRE). The initiative aims to reach out to 1,000 institutions by 2027. Since its launch last year, Pay Autention has touched more than 10,000 lives through its workshops, street plays, learning videos and helpline. Over 900 Anganwadi workers, auxiliary nurses and midwives have been trained to become early identifiers. The initiative aims to adopt cross-learnings from global community-care models, train educational professionals to be more inclusive and create a phygital ecosystem for early diagnosis, acceptance and care.
Speaking on the initiative, Dr.Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power said “Pay Autention was launched with the mission of promoting inclusion and creating a robust support ecosystem for individuals with Autism, with a focus on mainstreaming the cause of neurodiversity. Over the past year, the initiative focussed on raising grassroots awareness and developing a large-scale bridgital platform to bring together stakeholders like corporates, social enterprises, and government ministries to design a pan-India support movement. We aim to bring in more organizations and support champions to partner with us to bridge gaps and expand access to the network.”
Welcoming the participants, Mr. Himal Tewari, CHRO, Chief Sustainability & CSR, Tata Power said, “Pay Autention represents a cause that is very special to the Tata Group’s community development philosophy since we believe in enabling holistic growth. Awareness of Autism and Neurodiversity is still at a nascent stage, and we still have a long way to go as large parts of our society still lie in the realms of unawareness, myths, doubts, and even shame. As we are completing one year of our Pay Autention initiative, we are grateful to each one of our partners who joined us over the last year on this inclusivity journey.Through this Maharashtra Neurodiversity Summit, Tata Power reiterates its goal to bring together several actors throughbridgital connectivity and easier access for everyone, especially people with neurodiverse conditions in rural areas. Post the previously conducted national roundtable workshop, this endeavour of state-level network meets shall now be carried forward to cover other key regions across the country.”
A few of the key participants who addressed the event were Dr. Ravi Singh, Head, National Institute for Empowerment of People with Intellectual Disabilities (NIEPID); Ms. Mani Gupta, Head of Delivery, Healthcare & Lifesciences Digital Solutions, Tata Elxsi; Ms Dilshad Mehershahi, Founder, Mann Centre for Individual with Special Needs; Mr. Vineet Saraiwala, Founder, Atypical Advantage; Mr. Kapil Kumar Agarwal, Founder & CEO, Viklang Sahara Samiti; Dr.Azizudeen Khan, Pro. Psychophysiology Laboratory, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay and Kamakshi & Vishala from Sound Space. The experiential event included a series of expert sessions, art &food by Café Arpan, managed by differently-abled youngsters and ‘Access for All’ and technology exhibits to help participants experience and appreciate neurodiversity.
Earlier in April 2023, TPCDT in collaboration with the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), a statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, hosted a public webinar and refresher training on ‘A collective approach to the inclusion of people on the Autism Spectrum’ on World Autism Awareness Day – where an audience of over 1000 special educators participated and earned recertification points as per RCI testing guidelines. Speakers at the webinar shed light upon the latest developments and strides in community care models as well as the voluntary groups run globally, highlighting good practices in technology for the inclusion of people on the Autism spectrum.
