JOIN US'The day when I truly overcame the prejudice'
Vineeta Shanker is an economist, journalist and mother, actively involved in helping leprosy-affected individuals regain independent and sustainable means of livelihood, writes Bindu Gopal Rao
Vineeta Shanker was born and raised in Lucknow and did her schooling and college from Loreto Convent. She graduated with an MA in Economics from Lucknow University and then went on to do an MPhil in Economics from IIT Kanpur and a PhD from Sorbonne University, Paris. After doing a Doctorate Fellowship from IIT Kanpur, she started her career as a journalist, writing articles on economic policy, education, health, environment and women’s issues for several newspapers. She has worked in various organisations in the areas of development, ethics and peace in a career spanning over 30 years.
However, her association with leprosy awareness was by accident. “A chance meeting with Yohei Sasakawa led to him asking me if I would be interested in helping out The Nippon Foundation with setting up an NGO for the social and economic rehabilitation of leprosy-affected people. I was not very confident because I had not worked in such a sector before and did not have much of an idea about leprosy. But I said yes after I went along on a visit to some leprosy colonies, The Leprosy Mission Trust hospital and Mother Teresa’s home in the Tahirpur area with Mr Sasakawa. I saw him interact with leprosy-affected people with great compassion and was very impressed with how he would hug them and pore over their bandages, knowing how much touch meant to them in a world that shunned them. I said to myself – if this gentleman can come all the way from Japan, then why can’t I get into this field? That started a new phase in my life,” she recounts.
Initially, she was contracted only to do the preparatory work for setting up the NGO. However, later the Foundation asked her to head it as well. “As the focus was economic empowerment and I am an economist by training, I felt that I could bring value to the organisation. When I started I did not know much about leprosy and the people affected by it. But I did have scientific information about the disease - about it not being contagious and completely curable. Armed with this knowledge, I thought I was free of all stigma. However, I have to admit that my first handshake with a person once affected by leprosy required an effort on my part. But having done so, I felt both ashamed to have let socially-ingrained prejudice make me inwardly hesitant and equally proud that I took the courage to confront this prejudice and overcome it. Sometime later, I came back from a meeting with one of the leaders of a leprosy colony and realised that during my interaction not once had I thought of him as a leprosy-affected person. I think that was the day when I truly overcame the prejudice.”
Her endeavour in these last few years has been to set up programmes for economic assistance, which will address the needs of leprosy-affected people in a meaningful way. “While responding to their needs, we have kept ourselves focused on ensuring that our efforts build capacity such that our intervention is eventually not needed. We have tried to set up processes which are fair, efficient and transparent, yet have an in-built flexibility to respond to the ground situation and the changing needs in the colonies. I look at these last years as a great learning journey, which has enriched me immensely. It has made me more compassionate and it has taught me humility. It has also taught me that human nature is the same across society and hunger for dignity is ingrained in us, even though circumstances may compel people to put it aside in their effort to survive,” she says.
It is this yearning for dignity that must be addressed and built on in all welfare programmes, whether by the government or non-government sector. A mother to two grown-up boys (engaged in economics and public policy), Vineeta says, she enjoys gardening and art the most in her free time. And what does the future hold? “Good things for sure – I am an optimist,” she signs off.