Originally reported and written in August 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content.

Indian Sign Language (ISL) was the first language Nita Gopalakrishnan learnt. English was second. Born to deaf parents but being able to hear perfectly well herself shaped Nita’s formative years, and changed her perspective of the world, as she saw it through her parents’ eyes. 

In 2020, the 42-year-old founded Yunikee — a Hyderabad-based organisation dedicated to helping persons with hearing disabilities in India — with her husband Chaithanya Kothapalli (44) and her colleague Rahul Jain (34). 

“I never saw my parents as being different from other parents,” Nita shares. “To me, it was just a matter of my parents not being able to hear.” 

Being a special educator, Nita realised the inaccessibility of resources that deaf children often faced, a realisation that later served as her driving force to co-found Yunikee. 

For Chaithanya, an IT professional, it was watching his wife Nita’s work ethic while she taught deaf kids, which had a profound impact on him. So, after a 25-year-long stint in the corporate world, Chaithanya quit his job in 2020 to join Nita in creating the social impact platform. 

Joining their vision was Rahul, an ISL teacher who had been working with Nita since 2017 teaching deaf kids in special schools. Being deaf, Rahul brought unique insights to the table on how they could formulate a platform that would cater to solving some vital problems that the community was experiencing. 

A conversation sparks an idea 

It is not every day that three people from very different walks of life bond over an idea. As Chaithanya, Nita and Rahul share the story of Yunikee’s inception, they are well aware of the incredible alignment of thoughts, among other things. 

“It was thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Chaithanya. The trio was discussing the unfairness of the situation — how abled students had the privilege of continuing their schooling online while students with hearing disabilities were denied this basic right. They figured that this discrimination extended beyond the classroom. 

“What if we were to start a platform that enabled hearing disabled people to access equal opportunities in terms of jobs, skillset training and more?” they thought. 

“That’s where it all started,” Chaithanya shares. And there was no looking back. 

“Yunikee is an actual word (in Telugu) that translates to ‘I exist.........

© The Better India