Addressing a meeting of Ashoka Fellows here on Friday, Shanthi said her organisation had been able to offer placement for about 1,000 disabled persons. They were now working as medical transcriptionists, semi technical workers, technical workers, coffee brew-masters and call-centre executives”, she added. Founder of Panchayat Academy Elango Ramaswamy, said: “Food for the country comes from the villages yet families in villages earn less than Rs 6,000 a year”.