Policies need to promote inclusion, empower and educate students who come under the category of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
“We need to take up a nation-wide campaign to ensure that all of India becomes friendly with this set of people and ensure that PwDs have access to facilities that takes into account their physical challenge,” said Padma awardee and ace wheelchair tennis player, Boniface Prabhu, to thunderous applause from an encouraging lot of PwDs from over two dozen schools in the twin cities. He added that many PwDs do not even know that they have rights.
Wincing while on his wheelchair, the country’s first paralympic medal winner lifted up his hands to underscore his point and said that government policies need to be PwD-friendly. He was speaking after inaugurating an annual sports tournament at Government Girls High School at Nallagutta, off Prenderghast road on Tuesday.
Mr. Prabhu, who hails from Bengaluru, interacted with students at the school during a stopover in his 3,500-km-long Thums Up Veer Kashmir2Kanyakumari road expedition. He is driving a grey Innova with an automatic transmission and is on a mission to create awareness and sensitise people to the cause of PwDs.
The stopover coincided with the conduct of a sports tournament titled ‘Empowerment of children through sports’, implemented by Plan India. Vice-president (corporate affairs), Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Umesh Malik, outlined the need to place special emphasis on education of children in Telangana and bridge the gap between the abled and the differently-abled.
The expedition started on November 9 and would end in Kanyakumari in the first week of December. Assisted by two persons and with a support vehicle following, Mr. Prabhu has touched Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad and Pune before arriving here, covering over 2,500 km in 20 days.
