Ulgulan Talks! : Interview with Swathi Gadepalli
In this ninth interview of The Sangyan’s ‘Ulgulan Talks!’, an endeavor to voice the issues of the larger interest of ‘We, the People’, Abhishek (the interviewer) talks to Swathi Gadepallli, a young woman from Hyderabad, Telangana, primarily regarding the impact of climate change on her life in respect to her disability.
Swathi has completed her education in studies till 6th standard. She is a disability activist and a content writer. Swathi can be reached at her LinkedIn Profile.
This interview was conducted in February 2023 through online mode in written format. The due informed consent of the interviewee has been taken before the publication of the blog. Further, the ‘Right to be Forgotten’ of the interviewee shall be respected.
Hello Swathi, please talk about your life journey in some detail for our readers.
I am Swathi Gadepallli, and I am a 33-year-old woman from the city of pearls — Hyderabad. I have a condition called Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy, which makes my extreme limbs very weak including my fingers, hands, and legs. I was able to work, albeit with a little difficulty, until I was 11. But after that I had to use a wheelchair. This forced me to quit school due to lack of accessible infrastructure at my school. My parents decided that I would pursue and learn what I want and rejected the idea of formal schooling. Having a large support system in the form of joint family helped me a lot during this phase, especially my sister and my cousins made sure that they were there for me.
But when they got busy with schooling, my parents introduced the magic of fiction to me. Books proved to be a boon as they made me travel all across the world from my room and also made me part of many book clubs where I began dabbling in writing.
Later, when my cousin recommended me for a work-from-home position as a content editor, I grabbed the opportunity and began my freelance content writing journey. What changed my life was the finding of my mentor who rooted for me to take on challenges and accept gigs sector, short films, web content, translation, etc.
Now, I am concentrating on working with two non-profits including a women’s shelter. I have overcome my fear of writing about myself and started talking about my disability on social media platforms to spread awareness and change the labels and narratives around disability.
Please talk about your condition/disability and comorbidities, if any, in some detail.
Hereditary Motor and Sensory Neuropathy or Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects hands and legs. In addition to that, it affects eyesight, balance, weakness, heat sensitivity, causes chronic pain, among other things.
Does climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) have any impact on your physical health/condition? If yes, please illustrate on the ways it affects you.
I am extremely sensitive to heat due to my health condition. I have had dizzy/ weakness spells during summers, especially in restrooms. Therefore, my parents had to install fans even in washrooms at my home for my comfort. In fact, most of the summer is a period of hibernation for me as I can’t go out in the heat.
Does climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) have any impact on your mental health/condition? If yes, please illustrate on the ways it affects you.
The increase in temperatures during summer and even the extension of summer months in Hyderabad due to climate change has had a direct impact on my mobility, which is a source of much frustration for me. Not being able to go out at least once a week makes me feel depressed and out of sorts.
What do you think about climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) acting as a threat multiplier and resulting in capability deprivation (like loss of livelihood or additional medical expenses, etc.)? Please provide a personal account, if plausible.
Apart from increase in temperatures during summers, cloudbursts have increased in frequency in Hyderabad, which means that I have to be on guard to protect my precious motorised wheelchair from getting wet, as it would increase the repair expenditures and reduce my mobility — a stress that only I and my close ones will understand. Even going out becomes difficult as it can rain suddenly and heavily, which can lead me to get stranded.
Please tell about any measure/action you take to adapt and mitigate the negative impact of climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) in your life to avoid worse-off experiences (like avoid travelling during extreme weather conditions or certain medication, etc.)? Please provide a personal account if plausible.
My parents have installed AC in my home and fans in my restroom so that I can be comfortable. We are always anxious about going out during summer as I can’t take the extreme weather and we postpone going out until after summer.
Rains have been another source of stress these days. Earlier, Hyderabad had been a rather dry city. Unpredictable weather has made me think twice before going out.
What else you think that needs to be done to counter the worse-off experiences of climate change and its induced disasters (read extreme weather and climatic conditions like heatwaves, cyclones, floods, etc.) and to counter the disproportionate impact of climate change and its induced disasters on persons with disability concerning their physical and mental health, work and livelihood, hunger and poverty, disability inclusive disaster risk reduction, etc. to ensure disability inclusive climate justice.
The drainage and road infrastructure has to improve to withstand the increase in rains. The frequency in floods in Hyderabad is something that scares me a lot as I live on the ground floor and there are not many wheelchair accessible places nearby that I can go to for safety.
Any further comment you want to make in respect to the intersection between climate change (and its induced disasters) and disability.
I have heard about climate change having more impact on the vulnerable than on the regular folks and I have personally experienced this.
This was Swathi Gadepallli talking about her life journey and her experiences with disability and climate change. We, at The Sangyan and Ulgulan Talks, thank her for giving her precious time and an opportunity to know about her and her lived experiences.
Abhishek Kumar is an NCPEDP-Javed Abidi fellow on Disability who is currently working on the “Impact of Climate Change on People with Disabilities. The author can be reached at <abhishek.ncpedp@gmail.com>.
The interview has been published on the blog of The Sangyan as part of its public engagement and discourse initiative called ‘Ulgulan Talks!’.
