Deaf Role Models

Saudamini Pethe is a prominent feminist role model, actively involved in supporting deaf women across the country. She is the first deaf law student from the country and is a pioneer in making legal awareness accessible to deaf women, she organized along with other lawyers a 12 part series for deaf women last year (2020) demystifying various laws and legal procedures. Saudamini is an avid reader, loves to travel and watch movies & sitcoms in her free time. Saudamini has completed her M.A. In English Literature from the University of Mumbai and has done the Freelance Journalism and Authorship course from The British Council. She is currently pursuing LLB in Institute of Law and Research, Faridabad, MDU after securing DLAW fellowship.   Saudamini was born on 26th Sep 1977 in Goregaon (Mumbai) and brought up in suburbs of Mumbai (Dombivli, near Thane – Maharashtra). She contracted meningitis at the age of 9 and overdose of medication led to deafness. Her father is now retired RBI

Ashley Jain is a technology wizard who is fascinated by the world of sign language that he discovered late in life. He loves travelling the world, he has been to 22 countries and has a weakness for long drives. Ashley stands out as he is one of the very few deaf engineers from India. He graduated from the world renowned Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) completing the Bachelor of technology (B.Tech) and Master of technology (M.Tech) in Computer Science on 2019. He has designed the famous Access Mantra website (https://www.accessmantra.com/), which is widely popular in the deaf community as the 'Google for the Deaf'. He has been working as Data Scientist at Rakuten in Tokyo, Japan from 2019 right after he graduated from college. Ashley Jain was born on 8th September, 1995 at Delhi, India. There are four members in his family. His father is businessman in traditional women garments at Chandi Chowk, mother is housewife. There are only two deaf members in his family - hi