Dr.
Narayan Singh Manaklao, a college professor-turned-social worker, started
SKSN in 1991. While attending a village wedding in 1990, he noticed that
a physically challenged man was constantly being chased away by the elders,
and was being prevented from joining in the wedding celebrations. When Dr Manaklao asked him who he was, and why this kind of treatment was being meted out to him, the sad-looking man replied 'I am the bride's uncle, but I'm not being allowed to take part in the wedding ceremonies because of my ugly disability. My family doesn't think that I fit in with the community. They say that my presence will ruin the wedding'.
Appalled at listening to such a devastating account, the statement gave birth to Dr Manaklao's goal to provide every single disabled child from the State of Rajasthan with an education. Hence, the school began its life with about 20 disabled children being taught under a tree.
When
SKSN was registered as a Trust in 1997, Dr Bhairoon Singh Bhati, joined
the school as Joint Secretary. Armed with an MA and Ph.D. in Sociology,
his dream was to turn these physically challenged children into self-sufficient
citizens of the world, who will not be dependent on their families for their
livelihoods. And he's doing just that, since taking over the reins as Secretary,
the school population of SKSN has increased from 240 children to over 500
physically disabled students. Sneh Gupta joined SKSN as Executive Director in 1998. In 2001, she was instrumental in introducing physically challenged rural girl students to the school; she strongly believes in disabled girls having the same rights to an education as their able-bodied counterparts. Today, SKSN accommodates 146 underprivileged girls who would otherwise be deprived of an education.
A lot of changes have taken place at SKSN since its humble beginnings in 1991.The student population has grown from 20 to 550 kids; a university program is in place to nurture them further in life; and they have taken part in sports tournaments in the UK. And in 2003, the SKSN students also had the opportunity of meeting Prince Charles.
