About Us

Our Story

Registered as a society on 20th April 2014, DNA was founded by leading Disability Organizations in Karnataka with a vision to promote an inclusive society where there is an equal opportunity for all and empowerment of persons with disabilities.

Over the last 7 years, DNA’s membership has continued to grow and now stands at 160 organizations from 27 Districts across all four divisions of Karnataka. These NGOs work with and impact the lives of nearly 30,000 Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and cover the entire range of disabilities i.e. Physical Disability, Intellectual Disability, Mental Illness, Multiple Disabilities, Blood related disorders & Rare Diseases. Our Member organizations work at the grassroot level and their interventions are across Life Stages of PwDs covering Early Intervention, Inclusive Education & creating Livelihood opportunities.

With a growing membership base of NGOs, we have actively supported them through capacity building, collaboration and strategic services. By bringing them together, we help in sharing best practices and build momentum to accelerate the overall impact.

We have created a platform for disability NGOs and experts in the sector to share their knowledge & skills with smaller and emerging NGOs to enhance their understanding & knowledge, transfer skills to them & enable them to improve their quality of intervention for Persons with Disability.

We have represented the sector with the State & local Government agencies & worked with them on many initiatives such as RPwD act implementation, COVID Vaccination drive etc. We are now recognised as the voice of the sector in Karnataka and invited by these agencies in their deliberations.

We have also conceived & facilitated a number of programs in the Livelihood space, Early Intervention space etc. The implementation of these is led by our Members. This operating model enables us to leverage the expertise within our Members whilst minimising Administration costs in DNA.

We have created a DNA executive council, a secretariat and a network with the leaders of our Members that gives us access to unparalleled experience in the Disability sector.

Having laid a strong foundation we are now moving to the next phase of our Strategy.


Our Strategy

In this phase, our priority is to scale up and multiply the impact of the ‘collective’ model that we have successfully created. Over the next 5 years we aim to impact the lives of 100,000 PWDs through our network of Member NGOs. We will leverage technology & data and strive to strengthen the entire ecosystem underpinning the Disability sector.

Our vision is to foster a healthy society with inclusion and justice for all

Our Mission is to build & support the ecosystem required for an inclusive & just society for PwDs across India

Our Objectives

To enable a sustainable and growing Disability NGO sector

To become a trusted partner of the Government in developing the sector

To ensure improved quality of life for PwDs & their Families

To foster Research on the sector

To improve medical, rehabilitation & other support services for PwDs

Our interventions will focus on

Capacity Building of our Members & the Society at large

Policy & Advocacy

Livelihood Opportunities

Health & Education


Our Team

Executive Committee


Advisory Board


Administrative Committee


Managing Committee

Partners