Our Team
Dr. Arvind Kulkarni
Trustee & PresidentDr Arvind Kulkarni is an onco radiologist with more than half a century of experience in the field working in India, US, UK and Canada. He was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award of Indian Cancer Society. Dr Kulkarni was the Chairman of the Managing Committee of Kamayani from 2006 to 2019. He established the Vocational Training Centre at Talegaon and also gave a boost to the Vocational Training workshop at our Nigdi campus. He is currently a Trustee and President of the Kamayani P & S Society.
Dr Ashutosh Bhupatkar
ChairmanDr Ashutosh Bhupatkar has been both a practitioner and an academician in the field of Management. He was the Director of Institute of Management Development and Research, Pune for 16 years. In his association with Kamayani spanning a quarter century, he has held the posts of Treasurer and Vice Chairman of the Managing Committee. Currently he is a Trustee and Chair of the Managing Committee of Kamayani.
Smt. Shreelekha A. (Anuradha) Kulkarni
Vice ChairmanDaughter of our founder Smt Sindhutai Joshi, Smt. Kulkarni is now Managing Trustee of Kamayani Society. After a B.A (Hon) from Pune University she completed post-graduation from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai in1962. She worked at Khatau Mills, Mumbai and then at Hindusthan Antibiotics, Pimpri as a Labour Welfare Officer. She now devotes more time and attention to the work at Kamayani Society, guiding research work, public relations and administrative activities of the society and Kamayani Schools.
Adv Suhas Nagare
Secretary of the Kamayani SocietyAdv Suhas Nagare is a practising advocate on the Civil side with over four decades of experience. He is associated with a number of social activities. He is currently the Secretary of the Kamayani P&S Society, since 2018.
Mr. Pradip Moghe
TreasurerAs an officer in Bank of Maharashtra, Mr Moghe has vast experience in Banking, Audit and Accounting. He has been involved in the financial management of the Society now for the last 10 years in an honorary capacity.
Shri Ashok Kulkarni
Joint Secretary of the Kamayani SocietyMr Kulkarni started his career as a Special Teacher in Kamayani and retired as Acting Principal in 2016. He takes great interest in art and crafts and is currently the Joint Secretary of Kamayani P&S Society.
Mrs. Uttara Pandit (Medhatai)
Member of the Kamayani SocietyMedhatai as she is popularly known is a science graduate with post graduate degree in Social Work from Karve Institute of Social Work. She is associated with Kamayani since 1980 managing various responsibilities and events, especially fund raising and collecting donations. She has worked for placement of children in retail shops and factories. Medhatai is a member of various social organizations like Rotary club of Poona and has won awards for her work in Rotary Club and Scouts and Guides.
Smt Suprabha Sawant
Member of the Kamayani SocietySmt Sawant has vast experience of running a Special School for mentally retarded. She started her career in Kamayani School, Gokhalenagar, Pune and later became Principal of Kamayani School, Nigdi in . She was awarded the Maharashtra State Award for the Best Teacher in 19. After her retirement in 20, she is associated with the Managing Committee. Dr Asha Deshpande
Dr Asha Deshpande
Member of the Kamayani SocietyDr Deshpande has a PhD in Social Work and has led the research activities of Kamayani for the last decade and more. She has presented papers at International Conferences on research relating to Mentally Retarded persons. Her research has focused on issues relating to employment of intellectually challenged persons, effect of music therapy on self injurious and aggressive behaviour of mentally challenged children and fostering adaptive sexual behaviour.
Smt Madhulika Bhupatkar
Member of the Kamayani SocietyMrs Bhupatkar made her career in School Education starting from play group and capped it as Principal of SES Gurukul, retiring in 2017. She is now active in Teacher Training as a panelist with CBSE Centre of Excellence, Pune. She serves as a member on the Managing Committee.
Dr Janhavi Thatte
Member of the Kamayani SocietyDr Thatte is a practising anaesthetist with over three decades of experience. She has been involved in organising Inclusion oriented activities like a Walkathon in which normal children join the special children. She has served on the Managing Committee as a member since 2012.
Shri Sharad Patwardhan
Member of the Kamayani SocietyMr Patwardhan held top positions in the construction industry both in the public and private sector in his career as Civil Engineer spanning four decades. After settling in Pune, he associated with Kamayani. He guides all activities pertaining to provision and maintenance of all infrastructural facilities at different centres.
Shri Javed Inamdar
Member of the Kamayani SocietyMr Inamdar is a young IT professional, now working as an independent consultant in the field of Data Analytics. He came in contact with Kamayani while working on the CSR projects of his earlier organisation, SAS. As a member of the Managing Committee, he chairs the Research Advisory Committee and has taken active interest in reaching out to corporates like Ginger Hotel for vocational training of our students.
History and Legacy
Origin
Kamayani was set up in 1964. The word 'KAMAYANI' derived from Sanskrit, literally means daughter of Kama. Jaishankar Prasad wrote, ‘Kamayani’, a modern Hindi epic in 1936. He depicted Shraddha as the daughter of Kama signifying urge, faith and determination to live with Truth as a basic principle. It gives us courage to face the world, confidence to achieve and helps in acceptance of the truth.
Mrs. Sindhutai Joshi (1917-2008) established Kamayani for making intellectually disabled children self reliant. After the loss of her husband to a plane crash, she settled in Pune with her two small daughters. She completed her education and started working as a Social Worker in the Remand Home. She saw the plight of intellectually disabled children living in the vicinity of her house: they used to be ridiculed and harassed by other children in the neighbourhood. Sindhutai could not bear this ill treatment meted out to the intellectually disabled. Despite personal hardships and tribulations Sindhutai’s overwhelming love for children with disability - the 'mentally challenged' children - led her to make a humble beginning, which turned out to be pioneering.
She started a training centre in the backyard of her bungalow, ‘Kamayani’, with the help of colleagues in her local Ladies Club.
Growth
Soon, many parents of special children started approaching her to admit their children in Kamayani. In course of time, the activity grew into a full-fledged school for the ‘mentally handicapped, as it was known at that time. In 1982, Kamayani was granted lease of a plot in Gokhale Nagar, off Senapati Bapat Road in Pune. First the School building was constructed and later the building for the workshop. In course of time, Kamayani also started a training college to train students in Special Education for the Mentally Retarded.
In 1991, Kamayani started another school in Nigdi to cater to the Special Children living in Pimpri Chinchwad area which is a twin city of Pune. In course of time, a Vocational Training workshop was also added to the school to train students of age 18 and above.
All the infrastructure was built largely from the generous donations received from individuals and organizations like the Rotary and the Lions.
Sindhutai worked ceaselessly for Kamayani until her death in 2008 at the age of 92. She was awarded the President’s medal in recognition of her pioneering work. She has trained a band of selfless workers who carry the work forward.
Mission and Vision
Mission
Kamayani has mainly worked for securing a place of dignity in society for mentally challenged persons by providing education and vocational training.
The whole approach is to train the intellectually disabled persons in daily life skills to the maximum possible extent, to secure work opportunities for them and to enable their participation in the social sphere so that they are included, accepted and supported in living a life of dignity.
At the same time, Kamayani works with parents, siblings, prospective employers, donors and the members of the general public to advocate an inclusive, enabling and empowering approach to the intellectually disabled. This calls for looking at both abilities and disabilities of special children like the intellectually disabled and providing avenues for utilising their abilities.
Mere compassion leads to pity and neglect, while compassion with recognition will lead to support and inclusion and thereby create the possibility of meaningful participation.
Vision
Though Kamayani started as a training centre, its pioneering spirit led it to start schools, workshops, training college, early intervention centre and research centre. Our vision is to become a self sustaining Centre of Excellence that carries out continuous training, education, research and intervention programmes for both intellectually disabled students and their parents.
Newer technologies make it possible to improve the training process and outcomes, while changing social scenarios calls for newer approaches toward health, work, participation and inclusion. Thus in addition to training and education, we have to equally emphasize the role of research and intervention programmes.