Thanal is a social development organisation working in rehabilitation, health, education, welfare and mental health. It functions under Daya Rehabilitation Trust, registered under the Indian Trusts Act.
Founded in 2008 in Vadakara by a group of local community members and professionals, Thanal today operates from its headquarters at Malaparamba, Kozhikode, with centres across Kerala and programme engagements in 21 Indian states. Around 20,000 professionals and volunteers sustain its work.
The name Thanal — ‘shade’ — carries the organisation’s founding idea: a place of shelter and dignity for people the system leaves out. From its earliest days, the Trust has worked on the principle of intervening where other social actors are absent, reaching the most marginalised and at-risk groups, irrespective of caste, religion or social background. Its defining commitment is not relief alone but holistic rehabilitation — ensuring that beneficiaries and their families return to full participation in social, economic and psychological life.
Disability work forms Thanal’s core. Over fifteen years, the Trust has built an integrated ecosystem spanning early intervention, community-based rehabilitation, special education, therapy services, assistive support, family counselling and community-led inclusion. Thanal runs special schools for children with disabilities across multiple districts, alongside early intervention centres and psychiatric care facilities operated with partner institutions.
Thanal’s health interventions focus on access and affordability: community dialysis units serving patients unable to afford private care, kidney care and research initiatives, palliative and geriatric support, health camps in underserved clusters, and a network of non-profit community pharmacies promoting affordable and generic medicine across Kerala.
Through its institutes and academy structures, Thanal offers vocational and certificate programmes in dialysis assistance, rehabilitation assistance, patient care, geriatric care, computing and housekeeping — many of them fully free and reserved for persons with disabilities, delivered with recognised academic and certification partners. Vocational rehabilitation units train and employ persons with disabilities in production and enterprise activities, converting skills into sustainable livelihoods.
The Trust’s family-focused programmes support single mothers, mother-headed households and vulnerable children through welfare access, education support, health protection, and policy advocacy with state departments and local self-government bodies.
Thanal has steadily moved disability from the rehabilitation centre into the public sphere. It anchors the Kerala Disability Festival, a state-level platform built with disability organisations, district administration and citizens, advancing the social model of disability, universal design, and the democratic participation of persons with disabilities.
Thanal’s method is participatory and collaborative: multidisciplinary professional teams, strong volunteer and community ownership, partnership with government schemes rather than duplication of them, and alignment with national rehabilitation frameworks, the RPwD Act and the Sustainable Development Goals. Governance rests with a board of trustees drawn from health administration, enterprise, engineering and social development backgrounds, supported by departmental structures for programmes, learning and development, finance and communications.
Thanal continues to grow as a community-rooted movement — sustained by public goodwill, and guided by the conviction that service is not generosity but obligation.
In everything we do, we endeavour to provide the greatest level of quality. We always push ourselves to do better and pioneer new territory in our pursuit of the next big idea.
We’ve developed a supportive and welcoming atmosphere that encourages direct, truthful, and heartfelt networking. In order to create a sense of belonging for everyone, we welcome and celebrate our plurality. We support one another, and as a team, we succeed and grow.
Never do we give up. To better serve the needs of the most vulnerable people in society, we push the boundaries of what we believe is possible.
We’re authentic, honest, and dedicated to acting in the interests of both our NGO and historically marginalised populations. We voluntarily work together to find the truth. Politics, covert objectives, and passive-aggressive conduct are not tolerated by us.
To build a future where anybody can belong everywhere, we have come together with our community involvement.
India’s public health is at a crossroads and is recognised by different stakeholders, including policymakers and lawmakers. The decision-makers or the public do not necessarily understand the importance of rehabilitation in public health. We guarantee that families and people with disabilities will be able to achieve and retain the highest level of independence, complete physical, mental, social, and vocational competence, as well as full inclusion and involvement in all aspects of life. Our successful rehabilitation process requires the involvement of sectors including health, education, livelihood, and social welfare.
The initiatives dovetail efforts for increasing the prosperity and well-being of the marginalised. Mainstreaming rural livelihoods, ensuring people welfare schemes and creating market avenues for rural populations, thereby ensuring equitable development, our core functioning model. To achieve progress and bring about a transformation in the lives of urban and rural people, we collectively strive to eradicate poverty, illiteracy, caste and gender discrimination. The focus is on achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
We believe that development is person-centric and for that, we have to transform human lives through education. This requires advocating for a school-based education system that promotes sustainable development and keeps humanity at the centre of human progress. We have schools, multi-disciplinary therapeutic centres, and academic institutions for disabled children aimed at the general public’s welfare. We ensure that the right to universalisation of compulsory and free education is received by all aspiring children.
Bringing people together, giving them the solutions they need to recapture ownership of their own liberation from past economic and social repression, advance equity, and secure strong futures. (via education, proper health, and rights-based mechanisms).
A transformative community based psycho-socio-vocational rehabilitation approach that helps communities to become self-sufficient and engage in sustainable development and commerce.
ധർമ്മേന്ദ്രൻ ആരാണ്.? അത് ധർമ്മേന്ദ്രനും അറിയില്ല ! മനസ്സ് കൈവിട്ട് സ്വന്തത്തെയും ജീവിതപരിസരങ്ങളെയും മറന്ന് തിന്നുന്നതും കുടിക്കുന്നതും എന്താണ് എന്നത് പോലും മറന്ന് അയാൾ അലഞ്ഞു, ചിലപ്പോൾ മാലിന്യങ്ങൾ വാരിത്തിന്നു, വാതോരാതെ പറഞ്ഞും ചിരിച്ചും
Bangalore: Sridevi (name not real), a 32-year-old from Bangalore, faced devastating hardships after her husband abandoned her during pregnancy, leading to the loss of her
Udupi: Mr. Prabha Vasan, a nomad, was discovered in Udupi. He had been benefiting from our Hunger-Free World project for several months. Originally from Chennai,
നോവ സ്കോഷ്യയിലെ ഹാലിഫാക്സ് നഗരത്തിലെ ജോസഫ് ഹോവ് എലമെന്ററി സ്കൂൾ… ഭിന്നശേഷിക്കാരോടുള്ള സമീപനം മാതൃകയാക്കേണ്ട സ്ഥാപനങ്ങൾ… മക്കൾക്ക് വേണ്ട എല്ലാ സജ്ജീകരണങ്ങളും ഒരുക്കുന്നതിൽ രക്ഷിതാക്കളേക്കാളേറെ ആവേശം കാണിക്കുന്ന സർക്കാർ സംവിധാനവും അധ്യാപകരും ചുറ്റുപാടും… ശാരീരിക
