This 23-year-old distributor is making mutual funds ‘sahi’ for the hearing impaired
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. If you don’t have a finance background, it can be difficult to invest on your own. Most retail investors take the help of a knowledgeable friend or turn to YouTube to understand the basics of investing.
But what about the deaf community? There’s little information on mutual funds that’s available in sign language. In fact, six hearing-impaired people told Mint they’ve never come across a guide to mutual funds in sign language. Tushar Viradiya, who works with an NGO, wrote that he had seen the ‘Mutual Funds sahi hai’ advertisement but was not able to understand exactly what it was saying.
Although he had met some mutual fund distributors 10 years ago, they weren’t of much help as they couldn’t communicate in Indian Sign Language (ISL). Also read | Value vs momentum strategy: Which works better in bull and bear markets? Now, Viradiya and 41 others like him have started investing in mutual funds thanks to Rahul Gala, a 23-year-old mutual fund distributor who is also hearing impaired and can communicate using ISL. Gala said he now has 45 clients, 42 of whom are hearing impaired.
However, with just around ₹20 lakh in assets under management, he is barely able to eke out ₹800 a month from the business. “One of my goals is to set up an organisation where I can collaborate with other AMCs (asset management companies) and regulators to provide services for our community by providing information on every product in ISL," he told Mint in an interview conducted through text messages and handwritten notes. Here are some experts from the interview.
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