President to honour differently-abled social worker from Tamil Nadu with Role Model Award

He will be among 10 differently-abled persons and the only one from Tamil Nadu to receive the award this year. “I applied for it in 2011 but did not win,” he said using sign language. But he wasn’t demotivated. “I was determined to win the award. I undertook many projects for the betterment of people with hearing and speech impairment and have finally won the national award,” he adds. Murali organised job fairs and cricket tournaments for the visually and hearing impaired. He has motivated, trained and helped hundreds of differently-abled people to find jobs and to pursue higher education. Due to the hearing impairment he suffered since birth, he could only study till Class 10. 

“I could not continue my studies as there weren’t any institutions that could handle my special needs in the early 1980’s,” he wrote on a piece of paper. He did a diploma in tailoring and worked in a tailoring unit in 1986, before starting his own unit later that year. But his business did not fare well in 1990. However, he was good at playing table tennis and this helped him to land a job at Hindusthan Photo Films, Udhagamandalam, under the sports quota. “I was always on tour and won many medals,” he said. But he had to opt for Voluntary Retirement Scheme in 2002 after the company was shut down. Since he was married to a woman with similar disabilities and is the father of an eight-year-old daughter, he was desperately trying to find a job. His quest came to an end when he attended a programme organised by a Bengaluru-based NGO. 

“The event motivated me to be a job provider and an agent of change,” he said and added that this motivated him to start ‘Deaf Empowerment Activities for Literacy, Education, Accessible Development, Employment, Rehabilitation and Sports’ (DEAF LEADERS). He received the Best Social Worker Award from Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013.