Freak Folks Honest Talk

Honest Talk with Ms. Richa Bansal, Founder and Managing Director, Saarathee on Empowering The Disabled By Enabling Livelihood For Them


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Ms. Richa Bansal, in the truest sense embodies the following – belief, passion and

perseverance! In a career spanning over 20 years, Ms. Bansal has followed these mantras

to the hilt – culminating in a 5-year journey at Saarathee; with the belief of accelerating this

transformation for many years to come. She is a passionate leader with her heart in the right

place and armed with an immense ability for hard work and her belief in equity and equality

for all people.

Ms. Bansal has, over the last 20 years, donned many hats; first in media and advertising,

followed by a long stint in brand communication, marketing and sales in India’s then

bourgeoning telecom sector. Following her natural instinct to work in the space of social

impact, Ms. Bansal joined CRY [Child Rights and You] in 2014 and was chiefly responsible

for fund-raising to support CRY’s noble mission of enabling rights for India’s children.

Post the birth of her daughter in 2015, Richa took a sabbatical for a year; and while

pondering over the course of how she could contribute in significantly more measure to the

social impact – happened across her eureka moment. In her own words, “A few years ago, I

chanced upon an opportunity to engage with people who could not see… and because of

my limited understanding in the area… I thought that there isn’t much I can expect from

them… not being able to see is such a big handicap…Till these people turned my perception

around… and for good. This was a group of highly passionate and motivated persons with

visual impairment who were hired as tele-sales executives to drive sales targets for

Vodafone; and a pilot of 3 months turned out to be a sustainable business proposition. My

learning therefore was, that skills required to do a job can be tailored to suit a person with

disabilities…So what if he can’t see - he can talk, analyse, counsel, and lead, and do a

whole lot more than any typical person can imagine… This insight and understanding then,

became my purpose… This then became what we now call Saarathee.”

Armed with an aim to develop, nurture and transform equity for Persons with Disabilities, Ms.

Bansal founded Saarathee with the vision to firstly; display the positive business outcomes

that employing PwDs enables; and further on to transform, Persons with Disabilities into

Professionals with Disabilities by converging EdTech, Hiring and Change management such

that corporates can truly unleash the potential of PwD.

Ms. Bansal is a child of the hills and is now also a resident in her hometown of Dehradun,

Uttarakhand; and is an alumni of IP College, Delhi for her graduation and then at Amity

College for her Masters in Advertising and Communications. Across her professional

journey, Ms. Bansal has converged her energy and beliefs to today, drive positive and

sustainable impact on transforming the PwD and Corporate ecosystem. This is born from her

innate understanding and hands-on experience in working with Corporates and PwDs over

many years.


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Freak Folks Honest TalkBy Freak Folks