'Social Media has helped create awareness about Nethra umbrellas. Sales of Nethra Umbrellas is mainly through word of mouth and platforms like Whatsapp. We source the MS steel frames from Rajasthan from where most branded umbrellas also source their steel.' Last year 50,000 umbrellas were made by the workers (Aug 2019 to Feb 2020). K N Radhakrishnan Nair, Founder and Hon Secretary General/Trustee of NADE says, “Because of the COVID-19 situation, there is currently financial stress due to possibility of a washout of sales in the second consecutive monsoon. Visually impaired people assemble the shafts and ribs of the umbrella, Hearing and Speech impaired people sew the canopy to the ribs The job involves all categories of differently abled people. This project’s aim is to offer a ray of hope through which the blind and the differently abled can ‘see’ a better future for themselves. The umbrellas are sold under the brand name, Nethra. There are now several cooperatives in Pune, Mumbai and other places where job works are taken up and the income is distributed to the differently abled, based on the amount of work they put in or the number of pieces they produce. Now it provides special education to mentally challenged children and vocational training, employment, self-employment and other welfare opportunities to unemployed disabled persons like Visually Impaired, Hearing Impaired, Orthopaedically Challenged and Mentally Challenged persons from all over India. NADE started as a Blind Cooperative in 1972. Since 2018, a small manufacturing unit in Tagore Nagar, Vikhroli, a suburb of Mumbai has been rolling out colourful umbrellas in all sizes all made by blind and differently abled men and women as part of the National Association of Disabled’s Enterprises (NADE)

Rihanna umbrella totes