A decade of work with support to persons with disabilities in 11 states with 587 partners India has many millions of people with disabilities. But low literacy, few jobs, and widespread social stigma make disabled people among the most excluded in India. Children with disabilities are less likely to be in a mainstream school, disabled adults are more likely to be unemployed and families with a disabled member are often worse off. The Government of India has come up with legislation and various schemes and facilities for PWDs. But the disabled still face a lot of problems in getting employment and livelihood. To address the gap, BCF planned the Abilities Mela to focus on the abilities of the people.
The ‘Abilities Mela’ is an initiative to showcase and celebrate the skill sets of the differently-abled primarily to promote market products for those who are self-employed in an inclusive approach. The overall objective of the Mela was to link people with markets for earnings for a life of dignity such as gift orders, regular purchases, etc.
BCF organized in partnership with the Blind Relief Association (BRA) the first Abilities Mela in Delhi in July 2004. Thereafter Melas took place in Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin, Coorg, Leh, Latur, Allahabad, and Faridabad as per the table below with partners supported by Cordaid up to 2011.

Besides the display-cum-sale of products created by the differently-abled artisans, there is a whole host of activities that the Mela bubbles with, in the form of films, workshops, and other festivities. Some examples of these are:
Benefits of Abilities Mela:
• Public-Private Partnerships
• Exposure, Sensitization & Orientation
• Development of a CV bank for PWDs
• Articulates the need & scope of replication
• Emerging need for intensive research
• Policy Impacts & Outcomes

Future of the abilities Mela
The Abilities Melas are being replicated by other organisations as they provide common ground for opportunities while providing enough take-home thoughts, concepts, and hopes & weaving the scope for long-term sustainable outcomes & partnerships for inclusion & sustaining disability work.
The long-term vision is to help build a consortium of NPOs working in the field of disability to network to a level where they can pool the required resources for developing this program into a sustainable and self-financed one. With this view in the end, BCF's aim was to build the capacities of small NPOs on one hand and consolidate this process by documentation, fine-tuning, and replication of this model in as many places as possible. BCF has designed a “How to do it” Abilities Mela Manual for sharing its experience with disability groups and stakeholders across the country. This is in braille as well.

Abilities Mela - Celebrating Abilities
From 2004 - 2011, the Abilities Mela has been organised across various states and venues in India and has enabled like-minded organisations to come together to promote the cause of inclusion and shared platform, beginning with a small World Bank Grant, thereafter by National Trust, NTPC, KCIL, LSN Foundation, Federal Bank, etc.