How this woman entrepreneur defies disability, makes easy wear clothes for differently-abled

Here is a fascinating story of a trained Bharat Natyam dancer, a stage performer and a creative writer, who lost her mobility in her early 30s and turned her mobility loss as a trigger for setting out on a novel entrepreneurial journey. Zyenika, the fashionable adaptive clothing brand created by her, is coming in handy to other people facing similar problems, senior citizens and admitted patients. Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively, Soumita Basu, founder and CEO, Zyenika, Inclusive Fashion, narrates her own story, creation of the brand and the future journey she has charted out

Zyenika creates innovatively designed stylish and elegant clothes so that dressing is made easy, comfortable, quick, and painless, while increasing independent dressing and upholding privacy, for everyone including people with chronic or temporary disabilities and elderly

Disability is an under estimated market in India. Just looking at someone you cannot know their needs. One out of 3 women suffer from incontinence. As many as 180 million Indians have arthritis. And mind you only Indians with more than 40 per cent disability are normally covered in census. If you look at globally, 1 in 7 people in the world have disabilities. In Europe, the number is 135 million

You were a trained Bharat Natyam dancer and had a decent job as well. So, how did the entrepreneurial journey start? What was the trigger like?

As ill luck would have it, I suddenly lost my mobility when I was 32. Then there was gradual regression to 80 per cent disability. As anyone can understand, it affected my social and professional life severely. Life turned difficult, complex and miserable. There were more difficulties than one, but dressing up was the first place I needed help. I could wear nothing independently or painlessly. It was so painful to wear anything. I became dependent on others to wear. It used to take 4 times more time than able-bodied persons. Besides, there was constant discomfort. And to add to my difficulties, there was complete lack of choice. It crushed my confidence totally.

Then as I started undergoing treatment, it suddenly struck to me, why can't I do something to address these issues, something that would help not only me, but others facing similar problems. It was then Zyenika was conceived and my entrepreneurial journey began.

It was not just helping yourself or others facing similar physical problems, you were actually thinking of developing a business model. It had to have a revenue model. So did you do any market study- the scope, prospects, size of the market etc?

Of course, I did. See, disability is an under estimated market in India. Just looking at someone you cannot know their needs. One out of 3 women suffer from incontinence. As many as 180 million Indians have arthritis. And mind you only Indians with more than 40 per cent disability are normally covered in census. If you look at globally, 1 in 7 people in the world have disabilities. In Europe, the number is 135 million. In the UK, 18 per cent of the population have limiting long term illness, impairment or disability. The total number of disabled persons would be somewhere around 11 million in the UK.

Disability is estimated to affect 10 per cent to 20 per cent of every country's population, a percentage that is expected to grow because of poor health care and nutrition early in life, growing elderly populations, violent civil conflicts, and now with Covid.

So what do you do, or what does the brand Zyenika offer?

Zyenika creates innovatively designed stylish and elegant clothes so that dressing is made easy, comfortable, quick, and painless, while increasing independent dressing and upholding privacy, for everyone including people with chronic or temporary disabilities and elderly. We have dress materials for men, women, kids, senior citizens, patients and so on.

What are the tangible things you have achieved in this short period? I mean, what are the benefits or utilities that Zyenika dresses offer?

I have seen it myself that earlier such people used to take 20 minutes to wear a shirt, Zyenika products promise that they can now wear a shirt in 90 seconds and a saree in 30 seconds. Now, up to 80 per cent of impairment wear independently. Mind you that 15 per cent impairment needs help from others. We call it "adaptive clothing", but our tagline is 'Inclusive Fashion', therefore we ensure that Zyenika dresses are modern, contemporary and fashionable. We believe dignity and choice are priceless. And that's what we have been striving to bring on table.

How many designs do you currently have?

At present, we have 15 tested designs for men, women, kids, senior citizens, patients, for addressing different physical challenges. It's time to scale up, have more designs and go on adding continuously.

Who all are your targeted users?

Basically, three user groups. First, user category 1: people who are completely dependent. Second, user category 2: people who are independent, but with a degree of pain and immobility to wear. Third, user category 3: people who are partially dependent.

We create and make clothes for senior citizens, people with arthritis, parkinson's, Fibromylagia and other chronic diseases, autism, cerebral palsy and other lifelong conditions, people under cancer care and other long term illness, post fracture, post surgery, frozen shoulders.

How do you ensure that Zyenika dresses are best suited and best fit for these people?

Being someone who has gone through all these difficulties herself, I design these clothes myself and then I have a set of excellent stichers who make them under my guidance and supervision.

We use specific fabric combinations so that they are easy to wear, painless and comfortable to keep on. We keep innovative openings to make things easier for them. And then we use innovative and easy fasteners so that these are quick to wear.

You mentioned they are fashionable, as well……

Yes. We have different and wider styles: Western, fusion, Indian, formals, party wear and casuals. Just to give you an example, we have wingman trousers for men using wheelchairs and for men with poor balance. These fashionable trousers promise easy toilet access, and guarantee safe toilet use.

Similarly, we have LHD (Little Happy Dress). These are one-shoulder dress that opens completely for easy wrap wear. The detachable cloak gives false sleeves for added comfort. They can be worn without shoulder movements. We use Velcro fasteners. These are aasy for people with frozen shoulders, finger impairment and poor fine motor skills. We also have Zen shirts, where we use magnetic buttons. These are easy for people with finger impairment and poor fine motor skills.

What are your plans, going forward?

With a full scale and larger manufacturing facility in Kolkata, we have lined up an ambitious plans for inclusive employment generation. My plan is to employ women and PwD. I want to create opportunities to work from their homes, ensuring livelihoods to who otherwise cannot access it. Moves are also afoot to bring in innovation on making stitching machines disability-friendly and use solar powered stitching machines to ensure high quality, eco-friendly and affordable stitching at home.