Helping wheelchair-bound people travel independently
In a significant step towards promoting inclusivity and improving mobility solutions for persons with disabilities, Buddy Mobility Care — a pioneering start-up by Sartaj Lamba — was officially launched nationwide by Chandigarh MP Manish Tiwari.
The innovative service is specially designed to provide accessible and safe transportation to individuals with disabilities, featuring vehicles equipped with hydraulic lifts and ramps for easy access.
In his address at Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of public Administration, Sector 26, the Chandigarh MP highlighted the importance of such services in enhancing the quality of life for the specially abled community. Besides the launch, an inspiring film ‘Above the Limits’, based on the journey of the start-up and the impact it is making on the lives of disabled and wheelchair-dependent individuals, was also unveiled by Tiwari.
The film by National award-winning director Ojaswwee Sharma showcases real-life stories of individuals who have benefited from the service. Tiwari also emphasised the need for more inclusive solutions in public and private transportation, applauding Buddy Mobility Care for its forward-thinking approach to addressing this gap.
Sartaj Lamba, the founder of Buddy Mobility Care, shared, “Our goal is to provide a service that not only meets their transportation needs but also empowers them to live more independent and fulfilling lives. With the national launch, we hope to inspire change in how society views mobility for the disabled.”
Sartaj devised this start-up idea after encountering similar difficulty while tending to her father-in-law, Maj. Gen JS Lamba (retd). ‘Buddy’, a term used by serving Army officers for a person they can always rely on, is an apt name for this new service for disabled people. This family-owned start-up is run by all women members — Sartaj, her mother-in-law Rawinder Sawani, director and her daughter Avneet Bani Lamba who handles office affairs of Buddy Mobility Care.
A game-changer in the Indian transportation landscape, the company plans to expand the fleet and reach more cities in the coming months. It currently functions in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh with plans to take it up soon to Bangalore.
Ad film for theatres
At the event, a 6-minute short film ‘Above The Limit-Buddy Mobility Care’, was showcased by director Ojaswwee Sharma. The film is also available in three-minute and one-minute format. “As we all know how digitisation and social media have diminished the attention span of public, it was necessary to deliver this public service message in a crisp manner. The one-minute format is especially adopted to advertise it in film theatres to spread the word all over India of its high utility,” Sharma shared.
For the film, Sharma has featured specially-abled people from Miss Wheelchair World Saumya Thakur to para-athletes such as Ashish Verma (archery), Anjali Thakur, (boccia), Vidya Kumari (table tennis) and Suvarna Raj (athlete), all hailing from Chandigarh and neighbouring states.
Sharma is known for making national-award winning documentary, ‘Admitted’, which is based on a Chandigarh-based transgender. In another recent project of his, ‘Rabb Di Awaaz’, he had worked with visually-impaired people.
