Bhawna has always been an extremely motivated candidate, a trait which we first saw at her stage-1 interview. She wanted to explore the streets of Delhi (and later, all over India), she wanted to start teaching, she wanted to go to coaching, she wanted to restart attending her physiotherapy sessions which she has stopped since COVID-19’s first ever lockdown in the March of 2020.
Bhawna received her wheelchair on the 16 of February, 2022. She has since started going to Bangla Saheb each weekend, she has started going to her coaching classes. She used to take her classes online but now that she has got her wheelchair, she has started attending offline classes which has vastly improved her education experience. She was also unable to go to interviews for jobs (teaching field or call centres) since she didn’t have any mobility solution but now, she also has gone to many job interviews which has given her vast experience. She has also been discriminated against since she’s in a wheelchair and the interviewers say that their infrastructure won’t be able to support a wheelchair, they don’t have ramps, they don’t have lifts for the wheelchair, with no concept of Universal design but that hasn’t dampened her spirits. She has started going outside of her house exploring the streets of Delhi with her friends, independently. Before that, she used to go with her friends, with support of her brother. She has started going out so much now that her parents are concerned that she’s started going out so much.
When she didn’t have her wheelchair (and even when she initially received her wheelchair) she was concerned how the society perceives her and what they think of her condition. She was socially anxious that how can she use wheelchair in public, will she be able to use her wheelchair on roads.
Since she has started going out on her motorized wheelchair, she has also observed attitudinal changes in people living nearby, they’re more interested in talking to her, knowing about her condition and generally involving her in a conversation.
She used to go with her parents when she didn’t have the motorized wheelchair but her parents had to take her everywhere manually by pushing so it was an extra burden on them, but now that she has a motorized wheelchair, her parents are also relieved when they take her out of city.