I am very happy to say that People With Disability (PwD) can do any work assigned to them with the same excellence regular people can do, and in some cases even better than those who are completely fine,” says Krishan Kalra, President, National Abilympic Association of India (NAAI).
For NAAI, preparations are in full swing for two-day long Regional Abilympics in Delhi. Here PwDs from Delhi/NCR and adjoining states such as Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh will be introduced to wider career opportunities through various competitions and job fair.
“Abilympic as an activity was started in Japan in 1982. NAAI was formed in 2001 in Delhi when it was decided that 2003 World Abilympics will be held in the capital. The aim of the association was to bring PwDs from all over the country and put in touch with NGOs working to uplift their status. This particular programme is organised in collaboration with Sarthak Educational Trust, an NGO which has been working towards the welfare of PwDs from the past 10 years now,” says Kalra.
The founder of Sarthak Educational Trust Dr Jitendra Aggarwal lost his eyesight in 2004 due to macular degeneration, a leading cause of severe and irreversible visual impairment.
According to him, there were no consistent efforts for PwDs which led him to start his own NGO in 2008 due to there was no economic empowerment for PwDs.
He says, “I was a practising dentist. At that time I realised that not a single corporate was ready to hire PwDs. Our idea was to provide corporate jobs to these people and till now we have placed over 16,000 people. Last month, on 14 and 15 June we conducted this event at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai and after Delhi, we are taking Abilympics in Chennai and Kolkata. We are also opening a global resource centre at Gurugram where smaller NGOs in India will be empowered to further improve the livelihoods of PwDs.”
In the event, the participants will be competing in four different categories, such as Information and Communications Technology, crafts, food services, and architecture designing through CAD. These categories are further sub-divided into a total of ten segments.
The winner from each segment will stand a chance to represent India in the International Abilympics slated to take place in Moscow in 2020. A job fair is also planned at the event where over 25 companies will be present for hiring PwDs.
A regional conference, titled Corporate Progression toward Inclusion and Diversity, is also planned on July 4 here. This event hopes to see the participation of Government officials, NGOs, and top CSR heads.
The aim of this talk is to empower and providing sustainable livelihood to PWDs.
Nependra Kumar, a participant who suffers from an orthopaedic condition says, “This event connects us to Skill India. If you win a competition you win prize money too. But even if you don’t win anything, Sarthak NGO keeps your name in their database and lands you a job according to your skill-set for which they train you as well. I am also now training for 2020 Paralympics after being inspired by Deepa Malik, the first Indian women to win the silver medal in shot put in 2016th edition of Paralympics Games.”
On: July 4 & 5
At: Lady Irwin College, New Delhi