Before I begin, let me talk about how I came to know about Japan. It happened when I was 7. I was reading a magazine for children, when I came across an article entitled “Japan: the country of the rising sun”. It left a very strong impression on me and from then on Japan became the country I liked most. I began to collect information about Japan’s history and culture, and dreamed someday, I would be able to go to Japan. My dream came true, when I was chosen as one of the trainees for the Duskin leadership program.

Every part of the training in Japan had important meanings. For example, the ski training was not just two days of having fun. Through the skiing, we learned that people with disabilities can enjoy adventures just like others. For most people with disabilities, from various countries, every day is spent worrying about their physical conditions. For them, having an adventure is out of the question, let alone skiing. Until I came to Japan, I never even wanted to ski. Because of my disability my bones break very easily and skiing seemed to pose too much risk. However, I was prompted to try it because I heard that someone, an ex Duskin trainee with the same disability as mine, had ventured out skiing. People with disabilities can ski down and conquer high, slippery, snowy mountains on bi-skis. Through the ski training, we felt the triumph of the human spirit.

I had always wished so strongly to live independently. I lived in the capital of New Delhi but I had never about independent living. This motivated me to work hard while I experienced and learned about independent living in Japan. “Making choices and decisions by oneself, and taking responsibility for the choices and decisions one has made” is the most important concept in independent living movement. However in most developing countries around the world, it is still believed people with disabilities have to live with their families even if they get older. Usually in these countries, there are no government pensions, no barrier-free infrastructure, and no helper system. Despite all this I believe that in future people with disabilities in India will also be able to live independently. I visited several centers for independent living in Japan. They had same goals, but activities were different from center to center. It made me hopeful on the realization that we could establish our own center of independent living, suited to the needs of and sources available to people with disabilities in our country.

At university I studied psychology, including a variety of counseling methods, but not peer counseling. In fact I had never even heard about it before. At Center for Independent Living 'RingRing,” I learned about peer counseling tailored to each person with different disabilities, for example, people with intellectual disabilities or severe disabilities. I think peer counseling is very important for empowering people with disabilities.

There are three objectives in peer counseling.

1. Recovering self-trust: in another word, liking oneself. People with disabilities often dislike themselves because of various experiences, or lose the identity as a person with disability. Self-acceptance is very important before people with disabilities engage themselves in activities to change society.
2. Reconstructing relationships: it means cooperating with other people to build a good network.
3. Changing society: our biggest goal is to change this society full of discrimination. Rather than always seeking help from specialists and other people who offer help, we should strive to create the society we want with our own hands.

When I do peer counseling, I strongly focus on the five things (shown below) that constitute our sense of well-being.

Five things that support our sense of well-being

1. We want to love, and be loved.
2. We are very creative.
3. We are very intelligent.
4. We are full of joy.
5. We are strong and powerful.

In medical models, people with disabilities are told by specialists to work hard on rehabilitation and strive to become healthy like people without disabilities. But this is not so easy, so people with disabilities begin to lose confidence. In peer counseling we do not need these medical models. We share the same experience which helps us understand each other’s feelings, and give and be given support. It is the first step towards a more social model.

There are few sign language interpreters in India, which makes it difficult for people with different disabilities to work together. This prompted me to study some sign language in Japan. My Japanese sign language is not adequate, but I learned its basic rules. I believe this experience will make it easier for me to learn international and Indian sign languages in the future.

For many developing countries, building a barrier-free society is the biggest challenge.　Ｗe had never seen a completely barrier-free environment, so it is difficult to picture clear goals. We “think” barrier-free might be this and that, but it is merely an image inspired by someone else. For the 10 months we were in Japan, we spent every day checking if particular locations were barrier-free. This experience enabled us to understand where we stand in our home countries, and have something to compare against, for our future goal-setting for barrier-free society.

Before coming to Japan I was not very easy on myself. I always thought I had to work harder, and constantly criticized myself. If someone told me I was pretty, I felt insulted because I always believed that pretty women could not become strong leaders or exercise powerful leadership. But now, things are different. Having been able to accept myself, I have come to learn that I do not have to be perfect all the time.

I cannot remember when I first became a feminist. In India, I saw so many issues associated with male dominance and subjection of women. In Japan I met many female leaders and participated in a number of conferences about women with disabilities.

Each year there are 300 applicants to the Duskin leadership program. I am the one selected out of these 300 people. It means I have more responsibility than before to work for the empowerment of women with disabilities in India, who live under very tough circumstances.

Before coming to Japan, I was studying international relations, especially the relationship between Russia and Central Asia. I was particularly interested in Russia’s economy and foreign policies. However, meeting many researchers of disability studies in Japan changed me. I realized the importance of disability studies. In future, I would like to integrate disability studies and international relations, to study the issues people with disabilities faced after the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991. I am certain that this research will deepen my understanding of people with disabilities.

Participation in this training was my childhood dream come true—the dream of someday visiting Japan. Now I have a new dream. It is India’s people with disabilities living independently. As the first step, I am going to initiate activities focusing on peer counseling. Peer counseling gives confidence and self-acceptance to people with disabilities. I think self-acceptance will make it a little easier for people with disabilities to live independently. I would like to continue my studies, while being involved in peer counseling and independent living activities. Studying is like a fuel for my heart and brains, so I cannot stop. I think my research about Russia’s people with disabilities will be very useful in the future.

When I was a child, I had many dreams other than going to Japan. I watched English programs on TV and wanted to be good at English. Now, professors at my university and friends studying in English tell me that the way I speak and write English is better than my Hindi. There is more. Where I was born, women do not study very much, but when I was a child I was dreaming about studying hard. Now, I am studying international relations at the largest and most famous university in India. In addition to these many dreams of mine, I actually have another big dream. It is so big that I haven’t actually told anyone around me, but now I am ready to share. It is to become the secretary-general of the UN. This is a dream I have nurtured since childhood, and now, as a grow-up, I know how big of a challenge it is. But I am not going to give up. I will be the first female secretary-general of the UN! I am going back to my country, with a strong belief that all my dreams will come true.

These 10 months were so wonderful. It was like a dream. I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart, including the Duskin AINOWA Foundation, Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, and everyone from the organizations who accepted me for my individual training. Thank you very much.