He may have been lacking the ability to enjoy the melody of music or impress others with his 'accent', but S.Prabhakar Rao in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, has earned immense respect by helping others in distress. He is devoting his life to help out others afflicted with aural or speech challenges.

Rao, a "differently-abled" entrepreneur, extends his expertise and enterprise to others afflicted with aural loss. He has not only come up trumps for himself but has also helped many "differently-abled" people to find their own bearing in life.

Today, a proud father of three grown up children having normal abilities, Rao is determined to return the society what he can. It was after successfully securing a diploma in electrical workmanship in 1965 from Hyderabad, that he set up his own rewinding workshop. But he screened prospective employees in a different manner.

He decided to generate employment for those who may be having the will or some skills to work but failed to secure a job because of being physically-challenged.

"After getting training in electrical workmanship, my father started working in Srikakulam district which is our native place. He thought that rather than employing people who had no physical challenges, he would like to help the society by giving means of livelihood to those who are differently-abled. To achieve his mission he began identifying, training and employing people with aural and speech difficulties," says Rambabu.

Most of Rao's trainees or present or past employees and colleagues are hearing and speech-challenged. He communicates in sign language with them and never finds any difficulty communicating with the customers.

"Guru (or, the Teacher) is so benevolent that apart from imparting training to the candidates who are unable to hear or speak, he also tries to solve their career related problems after training. Some of them are not able to get employment for quite some time because prospective employers are suspicious of their abilities to communicate with customers. At times he renders employment to the trained boys here and shares his profit with them," says Narsimhulu, an employee.

International studies put the estimated number of hearing impaired people in India at three million with 25,000 children born deaf every year. Those in the rural areas miss out on the special schools for the aurally challenged and among the urban disabled too, the drop out rates at secondary school level are high.

An Asia specific survey released by a network of disability rights groups found that while all seven Asian countries surveyed guaranteed universal access to education, there is an overall lack of educational opportunities and rights for people with disabilities throughout the region.

In India, 74 percent of people with disabilities and 94 percent of those with mental retardation had no job, the survey found that in India millions of disabled live on the fringes of society, struggling to make a living.

Government officials say that about two percent of the population has physical disabilities but volunteers working in the field put the figure at five to six percent of the population.

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