On the stage of Little Flower Convent Higher Secondary School for the Deaf, 27-year-old B. Govindan, who lost a part of his legs in a train accident, was single-mindedly coiling wire around a branch to make a wire basket.
Inside, a spirited G. Nagamanjari, who has cerebral palsy, finished arranging her flowers in less than fifteen minutes, as requests for chrysanthemums, roses and thread poured in from other participants of the two-day Regional Abilympics Competition, which began in the city on Friday.
The south zone regional-level of the vocational skills competition for persons with disability packs in everything from computers to the crafts. Latha Shivakumar, mother of Kaavya, recalled how the class X student, who has cerebral palsy, has been spending her time practising resolutely with flowers for the past week. “She was so excited that she woke up at 4 a.m. today,” she said.
Forget the word “even”, said Dipti Bhatia, Deputy Director, Vidya Sagar, which is hosting the south zone competition. “People with disabilities are productive. They only need a platform to showcase their skills,” she said. The idea, she said, was to promote vocational skills, including ‘non-traditional’ ones. “It is an opportunity not just for their skills to get noticed, but also for them to secure a job and market their products. Also, the further they go in the competition, the more they need to get trained,” she observed.
The events range from embroidery, basket making, English desktop publishing, tailoring, photography, pottery and electronic assembly and testing among many others. The first international Abilympics was held in Tokyo in 1981 and India hosted one in 2003. Being held across various venues in the city, the organisers have received close to 500 applications from across south India including rural areas.
Abilympics is organised by the National Abilympic Association of India with support from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, and the competition is being held at the district, regional, national and international level.
Winners of the competition being held in Chennai will qualify for the national-level to be held in Delhi.
