Empowering lives with
intellectual disabilities.
Mentaid — The Association for the Development of the Intellectually Disabled — has stood beside PwIDs and their families in Kolkata since 1985. Through education, therapy, vocational training and self-advocacy, we help each person live with dignity, opportunity and joy.
What we do
Services woven around each person.
Special Schooling
Individualised classrooms for children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities.
Therapy
Speech, occupational and psychological counselling — for children and parents.
Self-Advocacy
Empowering PwIDs to speak up, make choices and lead their own lives.
Vocational Training
Skill-building and creative arts — music, dance, drama and hands-on crafts.
Moments
Everyday magic, captured.
To empower, secure rights, and improve the quality of life of persons with intellectual disabilities.
— Mentaid's vision, from day one
A success story
Supriya Saha — beating the odds.
Nineteen years old. A grocer's daughter from the outskirts of Kolkata. In 2015, Supriya travelled to Los Angeles — the only female athlete from West Bengal — and returned with a gold medal in the 800m walk at the Special Olympics World Games, plus a 4th-place finish in the 400m walk.
Supriya joined Mentaid at age six. Special education, a nutritious lunch, a uniform, life skills. Then a coach, a coaching camp, a mother travelling with her, parents of other Mentaid children pitching in to pack her travel bag. And a whole country cheering when she came home.
"We are very proud of you, Supriya. Way to go! Take life head on! You are a beacon for others to follow."Read the Times of India feature
Recognition
Four decades. A trail of quiet honours.
Awards matter less than the individuals we serve — but they remind us that the work is seen.
Read the full storyBest Institution for Outstanding Rehabilitation — Govt. of W.B., 2018
Dr. Reeta Peshawaria–Menon National Award — Jalandhar, 2016
SPANDAN Special Jury Felicitation — National Trust of India, 2014
Best Parents' Organization — Govt. of West Bengal, 2007