Endorsement from 5 Time Indian MP

Today marked a particularly meaningful milestone in the journey of EconReads. After almost a year of communicating with Shri Jai Prakash Agarwal online, I finally had the opportunity to meet him in person.

Shri Agarwal is a veteran parliamentarian and public servant who has served as a five-term Member of Parliament across the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, former President of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, former Deputy Mayor of Delhi, Chairman of the House Committee of both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and former member of the Congress Working Committee, the Indian National Congress’s highest decision-making body.

Our meeting centred on an issue that has become increasingly important to me through my work with EconReads: building meaningful accessibility for people with visual impairments, particularly in education and financial literacy.

I was especially grateful that Shri Agarwal endorsed our petition advocating for stronger accessibility provisions for visually impaired students. Beyond his endorsement, he shared valuable perspectives from his years in public life and offered practical insights into how advocacy can be translated into sustained institutional and policy change.

He also generously agreed to help promote our fundraising campaign, which supports our efforts to expand accessible educational resources and work with schools serving visually impaired students. His willingness to use his own platform to amplify the cause was a reminder that effective advocacy is rarely the work of one person—it depends on building bridges between students, educators, civil society, policymakers, and the wider community.

The meeting also held a personal significance for me. Shri Agarwal presented me with the Youth Gandhi Award for Service, recognizing my work in this area. Receiving the award from someone who has followed and supported this work over the past couple of years made the recognition particularly meaningful.

Perhaps most encouragingly, this experience has reinforced something I have increasingly come to believe: social causes can transcend political boundaries. Accessibility is not a partisan issue. The opportunity to learn, participate, and live with dignity should not depend on whether someone can see a screen. Seeing support for EconReads from individuals with different political backgrounds has shown me the potential for common ground when the focus remains on the people a policy is meant to serve.

Shri Agarwal also kindly offered me a Letter of Recommendation, a gesture I deeply appreciate not simply as a recognition of my work, but as an expression of confidence in the broader mission behind it.