Dalit with Disabilities Association Nepal (DDAN) was founded on the lived experience, leadership, and lifelong commitment of its Founding Senior Technical Advisor and Disability-Inclusive Development Expert, Mr. Krishna Gahatraj. Born into a poor Dalit family in Sudurpaschim Province, he acquired polio in early childhood due to the lack of timely access to basic health services, an early reflection of the structural inequalities faced by marginalized communities in Nepal. As a Dalit child with a physical impairment, he faced multiple layers of exclusion, including denial of accessible education, forcing him to begin schooling at the age of eight with the support of his elder brother. Despite these barriers, he excelled academically and completed his School Leaving Certificate.

After moving to Kathmandu for higher education, with the arrangement and facilitation by the Professional Development and Research Center (PDRC) and the Dalit Welfare Organisation (DWO), and supported by an academic scholarship from the Nepalese Youth Foundation, Mr. Gahatraj became actively involved in the disability rights movement and worked with national and international development organizations. Through this work, he realised that he has personally experienced structural barriers and observed a critical gap: Dalits with disabilities remained largely invisible, even within the disability sector itself, despite being among the most excluded and underrepresented groups.

Motivated by these unfair treats, injustice, and drawing on more than fifteen years of experience in disability and development work, Mr. Gahatraj founded Dalit with Disabilities Association Nepal (DDAN), an organization founded and led by Dalits with disabilities, dedicated to advancing legal recognition, dignity, equality, and meaningful participation and representtion. DDAN today stands as a human rights-based movement committed to amplifying the voices of Dalits with disabilities and challenging intersecting caste, gender and disability-based discrimination.