Disabled children bring back gold
Rema Nagarajan,
New Delhi, May 6
A
group of disabled children from rural Rajasthan has
achieved what India’s able-bodied
sportsmen could not. The children have won several
events at the Mini
Games, a run-up to the Para Olympics or Olympics for
the disabled.
The 10 children, aged between eight and twelve, selected
for the mini Games held in the UK last week, did exceptionally
well, especially in track events. One of them 11-year-old
Shaitana Ram, was voted Most Outstanding Boy.
“Though my family is very poor they sent me to
the village school as I was keen to study. Being polio-afflicted,
I cannot walk properly and the children used to call
me kodhia, (a lame child). But now I am doing very well
in sports and I was even ranked first in my final examination,” said,
Ram, whose father works in a quarry.
The Mini Games, a competitive meet designed to introduce
participants to various sporting categories in the Para-Olympics
was organized by the Disability Sport England, which
looks after the UK Para-Olympics squad. Children who
prove themselves in the Mini Games will be groomed to
represent India at the Para-Olympics. Among the countries
which participated in the Mini Games were South Africa,
Scotland, Ireland and the UK.
All 10 boys are from Sucheta Kriplani Shiksha Niketan,
a unique residential senior secondary school for physically-challenged
children. The boys won seven events including the 60-m
race with a single crutch.
Belonging to very poor families, most of the children
traveled in a train for the first time in their life
when they came to the Capital to board a flight to the
UK. While their tickets were sponsored by Air-India,
the MEA arranged for their transport in London. Their
trip was put together through piecemeal contributions.
Before
leaving for the UK, one of the boys had told the Hindustan
Times: “Our teams have always won
wherever we competed. This time too we will do our country
proud.” And they kept their promise.
Source: Hindustan Times
Dated 7th July, 2002
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