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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Jo Griffin

‘I focus on the person, not the disability’: the photographer on a mission to make India inclusive

Manisha Kumari Mahto sits on a colourful cushion outside next to and Indian cow and calf
Manisha Kumari Mahto, photographed for Everyone is Good at Something, was born with cerebral palsy. She loves listening to songs and trying to dance to them Photograph: Vicky Roy

For Bikram Bhattarai, getting to school meant being carried by his father, Narpati, across the hilly terrain of Gangtok in the north Indian region of Sikkim. The half-hour journey each way was especially treacherous when the rains came and Bhattarai, who was born without arms, sometimes had to ask classmates to help carry him, too.

Now in his twenties, he is at college studying history and enjoys writing poetry and listening to rappers including Eminem and Nepal’s Yama Buddha. But his true passion is art, he says, as he shares a sketch of an open palm holding a butterfly, drawn with his feet.

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