US-based software engineer, Kartik Sawhney's journey has been nothing less than extraordinary. The 25-year-old is visually impaired since birth and due to this, he had to wage his first war against CBSE as they did not allow him to pursue Science after Grade 12. The school believed that he will be unable to use apparatus, understand graphs and diagrams which are a crucial part of science.
Unfazed by any of these obstacles, Kartik wrote several letters to the CBSE authorities and got in touch with many NGOs wherein eventually the CBSE board allowed him to pursue science along with paving a path for many more students who were 'differently-abled'. Karthik again went through all the trials and tribulations when he couldn't get admission to the prestigious IIT due to his visual impairment. But what could stop an endearing force like him, right?
After the rejection from IIT, Kartik went on to fulfil his dream of being a software engineer and got admission to Stanford University.
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A recipient of Queen's Young Leaders Award by Queen Elizabeth, Kartik has also received the prestigious Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals from United Nations. Along with being employed at Microsoft in the US, Kartik embarked upon his journey of social entrepreneurship with initiatives like I-STEM or Inclusive STEM and Nextbillion. The distinctive feature of IStem is that it is- of the differently-abled; for the differently-abled and by the differently-abled.
Talking about his journey Kartik Sawhney said,
It was the year 2013 when I, like all other engineering aspirants in India dreamt of joining the best tech schools in the country. But when I reached out to the school I got the same answer, wherein they said, We won't take you in because you're blind and we do not have the necessary resources to support you. This is the problem that we're trying to solve at I-STEM or Inclusive STEM. The problem of unequal access to education and employment opportunities for people with disabilities because schools and institutions do not know how to support students and employees with disabilities. We do this with our technical solution where we not only provide a framework that organisations can use to support them but also Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered services which are multilingual, OCR technology enabled, real-time captioning etc. which will, in turn, support the organisations' students and employees with disabilities.
Inclusive STEM is the brainchild of Kartik Sawhney and has been co-founded by many visually impaired people which includes Shakul Raaj, Paras Jain, Sunil Chaudhary and Abhisar. After years of being underestimated, the team came together to make the world a step closer towards inclusion. Along with their contribution towards I-STEM, Abhisar, Sunil and Shakul are employed with companies like Microsoft India, Morgan Stanley and a financial firm respectively.
Further, they even conduct hackathons titled 'I-STEM Confluence' with the recent one being held in Bangalore wherein visually impaired people come together and participate in 24-hours hackathon and workshops. This proves to be a conducive platform for employers to hire people and make their organisation a step closer towards inclusion.
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Commenting on how I-STEM empowers the differently-abled, co-founder Paras Jain said,
Inclusive Stem empowers students and professionals who are differently-abled with a special focus on STEM fields. It bridges the gap between the employer or universities with differently-abled individuals with all the calibre required in their fields. It also conducts workshops, hackathons and provides them with employment opportunities.
Kartik believes that it is no rocket science to understand or help the differently-abled, as people and organisation have to be more empathetic and understand them. Sometimes, all they require is basic inclusion just like anyone else. However, lack of awareness, sensitivity and acceptance still continues to prevail in the society. The need of the hour is to increase diversity, accept each other, value everyone’s strength and work to provide everyone with equal opportunity to do their absolute best.
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