Disability activist Amarjit Anand passes away at 69

Tribune News Service

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, January 8

Disability activist Amarjit Singh Anand, who pioneered advocacy for disabilities and setting up of parents’ association for persons with intellectual disabilities across the state, passed away last night. He was 69.

Having suffered a heart attack recently, he was recuperating after a surgery, but suffered multiple organ failure last night, while still under treatment. He is survived by daughter Jasjit Kaur and a son and wife Upinderjit Kaur.

Doting father to a specially abled daughter, Anand’s two-decade-long activism in the field of disability altered the perception and approach towards the differently abled in the state and empowered countless people from the community who were previously relegated to the sidelines. His demise has created a huge vaccum in the field.

A steadfast advocate of the implementation of the RPWD Act, he was a member of the State Advisory Board, Zonal Users Railway Users Consultative Committee (Northern Division), State Grant-in-Aid Committee, Juvenile Justice Board, among others.

Founder president of the parents’ group the Chanan Association, he set up the association on Gurpurab day in 1997, naming it after Guru Nanak Dev with an aim to provide a platform for parents of specially abled to be empowered. It went on to become a movement with 16 associations in Punjab and others across Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and UP.

Anand also remained the North Zone vice-president (among other different posts), of PARIVAAR (the national umbrella body under which Chanan was formed), which is the world’s biggest parent platform.

While Anand’s own daughter was born with mosaic down syndrome, she was the sole inspiration for his taking to full time activism. Formerly a businessman, in 2005 Anand quit the construction business to pursue activism.

The various causes he pursued life-long included, accessibility, care and jobs for specially abled, implementation of guardianship and insurance schemes, empowerment of parents, and state of the art centres and infrastructure to provide treatment for disabilities and spinal cord injuries.

In his last post on December 3, 2023, he tagged the state CM, Social Justice Minister Dr Baljit Kaur and Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh stating, “Make Sector 70 Mohali centre for neuro and genetic disorder operational. Theme for 2023: United in action to rescue and achieve SDGs for PWD.”

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