Meet The Lady Who Designs Adaptive Clothing For People With Disabilities

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. This is what Suomita Basu did. When psoriatic arthritis got the better of her affecting over 80% of her mobility, and she had to give up her work and career because of this chronic illness, she decided to start a brand of her own. And thus was born Zyenika, a range of adaptive and inclusive clothing for those with disabilities and physical challenges who found dressing up difficult or needed assistance.

“Zyenika is a house of trendy, fashionable, and functional clothing which is easy to wear, and comfortable. My aim was to increase the independence and dignity in dressing”, says Soumita who is based in Kolkata.

The clothing industry does not cater to this section of people in society. Chronic pain sufferers, people with physical disabilities, senior citizens, autistic people can find it difficult to dress up or maybe semi or totally dependent on a caregiver. Being wheelchair-bound or bed-bound can also mean that wearing regular clothes is a challenge. But this should not mean having to wear boring ill-fitting clothes. When her own illness progressed, Soumita found it more and more difficult to manage on her own.

“My wardrobe discouraged me from meeting people or even getting on a video call. Missing my cousin’s wedding became the turning point: I refused to be locked in anymore. And I refused to dress in pain every single day”, she reminisces.

“A person with physical challenges knows how difficult or cumbersome and even painful something as basic and necessary as clothing can be. These challenges may be mild, moderate, or severe”, says Soumita who is a wheelchair user herself. But she feels that this should not compromise on the sense of dressing or fashion. “Your style and dressing speak volumes about you. It defines you. It’s a form of expression of who you are. When you are deprived of that it can lead you feeling low, sad, depressed and that doesn’t help any more than what you are going through already”. Soumita wants to empower them with the freedom to choose and wear what they want to by providing them with a label of bespoke wear because why not?!

Uniquely designed traditional men’s kurta, with no buttons or fasteners

After enough research, identifying a vacuum in the market for inclusive wear, and her own body for trials, Zyenika was born. It sure hasn’t been easy but Soumita is happy with the support and response she has received. A wrap-up saree which can be worn lying down, a kurta without buttons, pre draped sarees which can be worn effortlessly, and adaptive innerwear for men and women are the kind of clothes she is working on.

Sourcing the fabric, conceptualizing the designs, explaining it to the tailoring team, and overlooking the execution are all done by her. With no formal training in this industry, Soumita is self-taught and spent a lot of time learning the art and the trade. Not having formal training also came as a blessing because that gives her a space to think outside of the norms and comfort zone of the art form and that’s where most of her designs come from.

Easy to slip on top made with handloom cotton, No need to raise arms easy for poor grip/low fine motor skills

“It’s important to have that space where one is not told to ‘adjust’. When people ask me, “is it possible to design that way?” Yes, it is. It’s always possible to be thoughtful. That’s all it takes for good design, I say”. Adapting to the challenges of Cerebral Palsy for a customer, the clothing Soumita designed has many hidden features like a knee pad to support her when she crawls with the zips on both sides of the palazzo to transform it to shorts for easier wear and washroom use.

Also, Soumita wants to make sure that her team at Zyenika involves the deserving section of the society, and hence it is a women-led organization. “We strive to have a more inclusive team and ensure more dignified livelihood opportunities for marginalized sections of the society as our suppliers and workers. We are supported by GIAN (Grassroots Innovations Augmentation Network), Ahmedabad at the ideation stage.”

Zyenika is also conscious about not adding to the landfill and believes in reusing and recycling. “Give us your old clothes and we will create your new restyled clothes”, says Soumita.

For Soumita, Zyenika is more than a brand or a vocation. It’s her desire to move forward in life despite her disability. It is her hope and wish that she is greater than that and no matter however small her effort may be today, she is consciously making an effort to better someone’s life and that feeling is not a small one.

Zyenika clothing is available at zyenika.com

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Pragya Akhilesh, the trade unionist, activist and theatre director. She is also the national secretary of the Bhim Safai Karmachari Trade Union and the convener of Rehabilitation Research Initiative.

What does rehabilitation mean to her?

This initiative grew as a movement with the subjective understanding of Parsonian approach to rehabilitation. Personally, each member needs to be rehabilitated through a network model where the effect of the rehabilitation of a child can be seen on a mother and vice versa.

A lot of people when they think about the term ‘rehabilitation’, equate it with objective goals like getting a job, but do not take into account the sustenance after it.The real question is who are you rehabilitating? What is their socio-economic background? Are you setting up micro-credit self help tools for this member if that job doesn’t work?In this way, rehabilitation is objective, subjective and evaluative at the same time.

“I have never focused on the number of people rehabilitated; it is about whether the people you set on this journey are still in your life.”

What made her start the journey?

The ‘toilet woman’ epithet was first used in a negative sense as I have always worked with the sanitation workers. Family members of men who died in the septic tanks and while scavenging became the body of the initiative. They opened their own union of sanitation workers, and started challenging the lack of implementation of rehabilitation schemes by the government.

Sanitation workers who clean the toilets find themselves in public toilets that lack water supply. These toilets turn into ‘dry latrines. When their entire family acts as a sustainable unit, sanitation workers are liberated from state oppression. If they decide to leave the job we ask them to think how they want to rehabilitate them.

Her organisation tries to hold their hands while they break their own silence.The first SHG was a group of women sanitation workers who collected Rs 10 each from each other and held each other’s hands to liberate themselves. They became each other’s family member. When a group of people pushes each other to find their own path this is where the subjective and evaluative methods of rehabilitation become important.

About the Sanitation Workers and their rehabilitation

The sanitation workers who have successfully transitioned through the painful process of restoration are able to guide other workers on what hindrances they will face during the process.

Similarly, within different groups of men and women, the conversations around micro credit facilities, banking and small scale loans ease financial pressure. You have spoken about the need for a long learning process and understanding of the group of people you want to hold the hands of.

Rehabilitation in this way has not been about telling people what to do. If a person wants to take a class of folk theatre or learn singing it is also a way to restore life. When groups come together they themselves open many small political and cultural groups for doing activities together or having a conversation on things like minority community rights or gender.

There are multiple groups like Ambedkar Manch, Bhim Dal and Lok Theatre run by people of the community. In addition to this, women also put up their craft work in Dilli Haat through their small brands, Gulmohar and Neela Phool.

Sometimes it is also about enrolment in an English speaking course or learning a simple skill set. A person who wants to continue as a sanitation worker may also want to learn to sing. This is what an integrated life should look like. The scavenging community is very political when it comes to talking about caste and the eradication of manual scavenging.

“For them, sitting with each other and reflecting on the loss of a person may also be a method of psychological nourishment.To leave this work or not is their decision. We cannot ask people to do that. We stand with the people from the point they decide they want any change in life. We do not go and make the choice for them.