Arunima Sinha

Arunima Sinha

Sinha was born in Ambedkar Nagar in the year 1988 near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Her father was an engineer in Indian Army and her mother was a supervisor in health department. She had an elder sister and a younger brother. Her father died when she was 3 and her sister's husband started to take care of her family.

Arunima Sinha is an Indian mountain climber and sportswoman. She is a seven time Indian volleyball player, mountaineer and the World's first female amputee to scale Mount Everest, Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Mount Elbrus (Russia), Mount Kosciusko (Australia), Mount Aconcagua (South America), Carstensz Pyramid (Indonesia) and Mount Vinson.

Sinha, a former national volleyball and football player, boarded the Padmavati Express train at Lucknow for Delhi on 11 April 2011, to take an examination to join the CISF. She was pushed out of a general coach of the train by thieves wanting to snatch her bag and gold chain. Recounting the incident, she said "I resisted and they pushed me out of the train. I could not move. I remember seeing a train coming towards me. I tried getting up. By then, the train had run over my leg. I don't remember anything after that"

Immediately, as she fell on the railway track, another train on a parallel track crushed her leg below the knee. She was rushed to the hospital with serious leg and pelvic injuries, and lost her leg after doctors amputated it to save her life.On 18 April 2011, she was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for further treatment, spending four months at the Institute. She was provided a prosthetic leg free of cost by a private Delhi-based Indian company.

While still being treated in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, she resolved to climb Mount Everest, She was inspired by cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who had successfully battled cancer, "to do something" with her life. She excelled in the basic mountaineering course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, and was encouraged by her elder brother Omprakash to climb Everest with a prosthetic leg.

She contacted Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest, in 2011 by telephone and signed up for training under her at the Uttarkashi camp of the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) 2012.Sinha climbed Island Peak (6150 metres) in 2012 as preparation for her ascent of Everest.

"Born Again on the Mountain gives you not only the courage to stand back again but to fight for everything that is worth fighting for"

Javed Abidi

Javed Abidi

Abidi was born on 11 June 1965 in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. He was born with spina bifida. Abidi first had surgery at the age of eight to treat his spina bifida. As a result, he suffered nerve damage. He required another surgery at the age of 10 after an injury from a fall.He moved with his family to the United States. After their move to the United States, Abidi received medical care at the Boston Children's Hospital and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Abidi began using a wheelchair at age fifteen.

Abidi studied at Wright State University. In 1989, he moved to India to pursue a career in journalism.The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation created the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People in 1995 and appointed Abidi as its director. Abidi collaborated with business executives from IBM, Apple Inc., Oracle Corporation, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard to employ disabled individuals in these companies and in the high-tech industry in general. In 2000, Abidi urged the Archaeological Survey of India to install wheelchair ramps at various prominent monuments, including the Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, and Jantar Mantar. The impetus for the ramps was to accommodate Stephen Hawking while he visited these sites. For the next two years, Abidi and the NCPEDP focused on accessibility for the disabled, publishment of disability issues, and work opportunities for the disabled.

Javed Abidi was one of the pioneers in creating a cross-disability movement in India, encouraging people with different disabilities to work on common and collective solutions. He passed away in 2018, but the light that he shone and the memory of his passionate activism is fondly cherished by individuals not only in the disability space but across India. His nephew, 21-year-old Shameer Rishad, is honouring his legacy by taking his work forward through the launch of ‘The Javed Abidi Foundation’ (JAF).

Launched in March 2019, JAF aims to effectively implement the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (RPWD) Act of 2016, which was one of Abidi’s unfinished agendas. Further, the foundation strives to bring youth together, foster friendships, and create a community where individuals and youth with disabilities know their rights. It trains them to be young leaders in the disability space, and effectively enable change

Abidi believed strongly in giving people with disabilities a sense of belonging in society. He wanted people to believe that the impossible could be made possible; all one needed to do was take the first step. He was one of the founding members of the ‘Disabled Rights Group’, that was set up in 1994, and was the Executive Director of ‘The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People’ (NCPEDP), a trust jointly set up by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Action Aid in 1996. He was also the first person to set up wheelchair ramps for individuals with disabilities at historical sites and prominent public spaces in New Delhi.

‘Be ready to fight your own battle’

Preethi Srinivasan

Preethi Srinivasan

Preethi, born September 5, 1979, developed fascination for cricket when she was just four. It was India's victory in the 1983 World Cup in England and Wales that inspired her under do India beat the mighty West Indies by 43 runs in the final.

She enrolled for a cricket camp at the age seven. Playing alongside nearly 300 boys, her hard-hitting batting style made them apprehensive of bowling to her. Her abundant talent made everyone believe that Preethi would soon an integral member of the Indian women's cricket team.

Preethi Srinivasan, the former captain of the under-19 Tamil Nadu women’s cricket team, held the record of being the youngest to have played for a junior state team. She was a national level swimmer as well.

However, on July 11, 1988, while returning to Chennai from her college trip to Pondicherry, she met with an unfortunate accident. They had stopped at a private beach on the way where she decided to play in the sea. Despite being a swimming champ, she tripped in the water because of the receding waves. The sand beneath her churned due to the wave leading her to stumble a little and dive face-forward into the water.

Initially, she thought she had been bitten by something in the water and would recover gradually. However, she was told by the doctors soon that she was suffering from a spinal cord injury. She was a sportsperson once and now, she could not move at all. Though she was restricted to a wheel chair, her sports man ship spirit and families' unwavering support, motivated her to become the voice of other spinal cord injury survivors. 

Preethi runs a charitable trust in Tamil Nadu called Soulfree which helps out people suffering from severe disabilities. Through this NGO, she wants to uplift the disabled sections of the society by creating awareness about these injuries and potential employment opportunities. The NGO also provides training for various professions such as radio jockey, audio books’ recording artists and so on.

She has now been honored with the Tamil Nadu government’s Kalpana Chawla award for courage and daring enterprise, the first disabled person to get this award in Tamil Nadu.It aims to spread knowledge on spinal cord injuries to every school, college and public so that people understand the seriousness of the condition.Soul Free also aims to provide a support system for people with disabilities and their family via donations, education and job opportunities.

Soulfree” is a charitable organization that was born out of a dream to provide hope for the severely disabled. After personally experiencing and also hearing about the stories of many paraplegics and quadriplegics – especially women – Preethi was moved to start Soulfree with the aim of setting souls free!

H. Boniface Prabhu

H. Boniface Prabhu

Prabhu was born to Harry J. Prabhu and Fathima Prabhu, on 14 May 1972, at Bangalore, in the south Indian state of Karnataka, as a normal child like his two brothers, Jerry and George. Prabhu’s life changed at the age of four when a botched lumbar puncture made him a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. But he never let this disability change his goals of life and continued his education in a regular school. His immense hard work and dedication has made him a notable figure and a leading quadriplegic wheelchair tennis player. 

He has represented India, at International events, in six disciplines, over 50 times. These include athletics, shot put, badminton, javelin throw; table tennis, shooting and discus throw, apart from wheelchair tennis. His foray into international sports was at the 1996 World Wheelchair Games, UK where he won gold medal in shot put and silver medal in discus throw. Two years later, he repeated the feat at the 1998 Paralympics World Championships, participating in javelin, shot put and discus throws. He is the first Indian to win a medal in the International Paralympic Games. He was a medal winner at the 1998 World Championships and was also awarded the Padma Shri by Government of India in 2014. It seems like disability is not a word in his dictionary.

Boniface Prabhu is the founder of a trust, Boniface Prabhu Wheelchair Tennis Academy, based in Bangalore, with the aim of promoting the physically and intellectually challenged people and providing them with opportunities to nurture their talents. The Academy provides free sports training to differently enabled people.Boniface is the brand ambassador of India for wheelchair sports. He is also the brand ambassador for many commercial products.

In 2005, The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, reportedly informed Boniface that he had been selected for Arjuna Award, the second highest award for excellence in sports, given by the Government of India. However, when the awards were announced, Boniface did not feature in the list. It was repeated for two years and in 2007, the apparent negligence yielded comments in the media. Boniface himself wondered why physically disabled sports persons were being ignored. He has not received the Arjuna award till date.

"Just chase your dreams,” is the simple yet profound message of H Boniface 

Prabhu for disabled children who aspire but do not have a road map."

Vikram Chandravanshi

Vikram Chandravanshi

Vikram Chandravanshi is physically challenged since childhood. Father of three and eldest among siblings in the family, he left school after class 8 and started searching for the job. However, no one showed interest in his abilities and dismissed his caliber out rightly. Many would have thought of giving up but he remained unfazed by, what destiny had in store for him. Down he was but not the least out, he stood steadfast and decided to undergo welding training at industrial training institute (ITI).

Chandravanshi is merely 3-foot tall and rides in a three-wheeler meant for differently- ableds. Many may find him to be unfortunate and his disability may present a very grim picture of his struggle but what it doesn’t portray is the volumes of his achievements. He has achieved so much that in him people see an inspiring figure and many consider him as their ideal. He has shattered the myth that disability is an hindrance, rather he has reinforced this belief that it could be blessing in disguise. Chandravanshi not only successfully started his own business, but also provides training to poor people as well as employment opportunity to them in the city.

Chandravanshi owns two welding units where he helps 15 other physically challenged people to earn their livelihood and become self reliant. 51-year-old Vikram Chandravanshi Running one’s own business and providing employment opportunity could look like a challenging mission for a person with physical limitations, but Vikram Chandravanshi resident of Kajipura locality has defied all odds to become a successful entrepreneur.But his predicaments didn’t end there as the institute principal deemed him unfit for the training and subsequently denied him an admission. 

This luckily coincided with the arrival of a team of experts from the Jabalpur at the same institute who directed that he should be inducted in the training course and also that prosthetic limbs be developed for him. However, his fight continued further as even after receiving professional training he couldn’t secure a job and remained undeterred and persuasive to change his fortunes. Following this, Chandravanshi moved to district employment office in a bid to get some respite but nothing happened as officials solicited him to start his own venture.

He hired some individuals and helped them earn their livelihood with respect and dignity. Talking about his family, he said his son has pursued Bachelor of Computer Science (BCA) while two of his daughters are married and living happily with their families. His colleagues and employees gush over his hardearned success and want to emulate him. 

Many say “His struggle is an inspiration for all of us”. A lot of his able-bodied friends can’t resist him praising. They say “His journey is truly motivational and inspiring as during our troubled times we idolise him to draw some strength and vigour.” He thoroughly believes in doing good deeds and virtues. For him doing karma is the eternal truth of life and he exhorts people for the continuation of efforts no matter what destiny has written for them.