Dr.Vaishali Kolhe, PhD

Associate Professor,

Centre for Disability Studies & Action,

School of Social Work

Project Director

I Access Rights Mission

Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Mumbai, India

vaishali@tiss.edu,

Mobile-8850038149

Dr. Vaishali Kolhe, working as Associate Professor and former Chairperson of The Centre for Disability Studies and Action, School of Social work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Mumbai campus. She has joined TISS in June 2002 as Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Medical & Psychiatric Social Work (Currently named as Centre for Health and Mental Health) and later shifted to the newly developed Centre for Disability Studies & Action in June 2006.

Currently, She is primarily engaged in teaching, training, research & consultation in the field of disability, accessibility, and inclusion in Higher Education, health, mental health, early intervention, Skill development, disability laws, policy initiatives, barrier-free environment, convergence and governance towards sustainable development goals with reference to disability. She is currently engaged in two field actions, research initiatives with participatory pedagogy of people-centred development and disability inclusion programmes at universities.

In 2003-2005, she actively engaged in field based work with mental health issues of children, youth, women and Child labourers in Dharavi slums & worked towards their education, skill based empowerment for three years.

In 2004, she worked in the TISS Tsunami Disaster relief Activities at Cadloor district at coastal villages on needs assessment & Trauma Counselling for crisis intervention.

In 2011-2015, she presented various papers on National and International Conferences such as International Conference on Education for All" University of Warsaw, Poland 2011. She had been to the University of Gothenburg, Sweden as a faculty exchange Programme for teaching and collaborations during April 2011 for two weeks.

In 2014, she started a research project on "Micro-Level Planning of Disability in M-Ward" to develop people's plan on disability using CBR framework, This resulted in action-based disability studies social work practice and the establishment of Early Intervention Centre in collaboration with another NGO in slums of Mankhurd to provide free intervention & therapeutic early intervention services to 30 Children with disability from below poverty line.

FAP & Initiatives-  

In 2013, she started a research project on "Micro-Level Planning of Disability in M-Ward" to develop people's plan on disability using CBR framework, This resulted in action-based disability studies social work practice and the establishment of Early Intervention Centre in collaboration with another NGO in slums of Mankhurd to provide free intervention & therapeutic early intervention services to 30 Children with disability from below poverty line. In 2013,

In August 2013, She was instrumental to initiate the Centre’s first field action project 'I Access Rights Mission: TISS initiative for Inclusion and accessibility for Students with Disability in Higher Education at the Centre for Disability Studies & Action, She developed the Call for Action guidelines for Students with Disability in Higher Education for universities in 2015, which was further revised in 2018 as per RPWD Act 2016. These guidelines resulted in constructive dialogue with other universities of Maharashtra & directions given by Directorate Higher Education. Government of Maharashtra to implement I Access Rights Mission, call for action guidelines in Universities/Colleges of Maharashtra. She was invited by the state authorities to develop two Government Regulations (GR) on emerging issues of Students with Disability in Higher education with reference to Students with Disability in Higher Education & teaching-learning/exams of 21 types of Disability and making universities towards implementation of a barrier-free environment.

In 2016 Organised the First International Conference on Disability, Accessibility and Inclusion in India followed by Organising National Conference on Disability, Accessibility, Inclusion and Wellbeing in 2017,2018, 2019 as part of FAP, initiative to create a national platform for all the professionals to dialogue on emerging Issues in the context of RPWD Act 2016 and legal and policy practices & bring best practices in the country on disability inclusion and innovation inviting WHO/UN representatives.

NEP 2020 & Covid -19 Initiatives-

1. Organized National Webinar on “E-Learning and Digital Technology for Persons with Disabilities in light of New Education Policy” on 10th September 2020, webinar organized by I Access Rights Mission, Centre for Disability Studiers and Action, TISS in collaboration with National Institute of Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities,(Dept. of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, MoSJ&E), Saksham Trust,Daisy Forum of India. 2. Organised National Webinar on Implementation of Rights for the Persons with Disability and Covid 19 Scenario. Dec 3, 2021, on eve of World Disability Day at TISS.

Publications:

1. Vaishali Kolhe,(2009), Inclusive Education: A developmental policy Addressing Social Exclusion, Page no-123-144, Critical Enquiry, Peer Reviewed Quarterly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Volume-I, Issue II, April-June 2009.  

2.  Kolhe, V. (2017) Access to Higher Education: Issues of Students with Disability in Higher Education. Aakar Publications, New Delhi

3. Kolhe.V (2016) Need for Accessibility Policy in Higher Education: Scope of Inclusion of Students with Disability & Diversity, Edited Vol.: Book- Social Inclusion in Higher Education ISBN 978-93-5149-531-4, Sheth Publisher, Mumbai.

4. Navin Krishna Tharur, Vaishali Kolhe, (2017) Role of Belief Systems in Enhancing and Mitigating perceived Stigma in Persons with Vitiligo, International Journal of Advances in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJASEAT). Vol-5, Iss-3, Spl. Issue-1 Aug.-2017.