¡°There was not even a single day when I didn¡¯t go out to distribute rations for homeless people in Ranaghat (a peri-urban place in Nadia District, West Bengal)", said Atar Ali, the national runner with disabilities who recently made headlines in a Queer-Disability fashion show in Bengal last month.??
¡°I made sure at least 300 people didn¡¯t have to sleep without having food,¡± he added.?
Atar is no exception. Abhirupa Kar, Researcher, and Disability activist, Civilian Welfare Foundation (CWF) mentioned their Food Drive which feeds over 200 people per day for the past one month is spearheaded by Nahid Qaiser, a Cricketer with locomotor disability. She points out it was Nahid who gathered volunteers, took permission, organizing campaigns and going out every night in Khidderpore, Hastings, and Bhowanipore Area.?
When contacted Nahid was very straight forward in saying ¡°I don¡¯t think Government is doing enough especially for people who are daily wagers and homeless hence we all have to contribute in whatever way to sustain these initiatives, I am grateful that I could be a part.¡±?
The initiative by Civilian Welfare Foundation also includes sanitation drives, sanitary pad distribution as a part of COVID relief work.?
Special Athletes of Bengal are doing their very best in these times. Take the examples of athletes in Hooghly District where Hasi Duley and Biswajit Malik, football players with intellectual disabilities are going door to door to give rations in the villages.?
Afsana Khatun an international floor hockey player and Ankita Mondal a special athlete in Floor hockey are also helping their coaches in reaching out to people in need during this hour of crisis. Saikat Dey, Program Co-Ordinator, Special Olympics Bharat, West Bengal was overwhelmed with the work special athletes are doing in this lockdown period. He mentions when ordinary people are busy looking after themselves, special kids are coming out for relief work and making sure that everyone gets food.?
United Partner Piyas Chatterjee who made it to International World Games, Abu Dhabi last year is also extending his helping hand to others in these tough times in the district of 24 Parganas along with Special Olympics coach Tabua Chatterjee who has been instrumental in the relief work.?
Sport Psychologist Anusheela Bhramachary points out here that inclusion campaigns in Bengal might have a role to play in these integrated relief work approaches. She mentions throughout the world sports always play a big role in changing the inclusive index of a population and Bengal might be witnessing this. Worth mentioning here Bengal has seen a rise in integrated sports in the last one year. From mixed disability football initiatives to Unified school program the athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities of Bengal are getting more and more exposure to Unified sports.?
In Birbhum, the model district of disability sports in West Bengal, Bodruddoja Saikh, a disabled individual himself and a coach for athletes with disabilities have made more than 2500 masks in his small tailoring shop to distribute among nearby villages. He along with Suparna Mal, International Para Swimmer, and Soma Ghosh, a para-athlete organizes weekly rations for homeless people and daily wage earners. Bodruddoja didn¡¯t hesitate to mention that he cannot sit back at home when people in his village are starving.?
Disability Scholarship or ¡°Manobik Bhata¡± is a scheme where individuals with more than forty percent disability get a scholarship of Rs 1000 per month from the Government. In a state where the average income of a four-member family of a para-athlete is not more than Rs 8000 per month, athletes with disabilities have donated their scholarship for food drives and relief work. Saheb Hussain, an athlete with visual impairment and national record holder for 100m, Sanjay Das, a para-footballer himself and Coach for Mixed Disability Football, Civilian Welfare Foundation are few examples who despite coming from low-income families donated their money to the food drives.?
While most of the initiatives are directed towards food drives of homeless people, para-athlete Ujjwal Ghosh is a rare exception. A campaigner for a clean and green environment who recently was in news due to his inter-country bi-cycle tour feels that it is important to make people aware of the problems of the viral disease Corona. Hence, he took up a unique approach of sensitizing the mass through wall graffities in his village which was appreciated by many in the area.?
According to the United Nations, compared to persons without disabilities, persons with disabilities are more likely to have poor health. Among 43 countries, 42 percent of persons with disabilities versus 6 percent of persons without disabilities perceive their health as poor. While a lockdown in a developing country like India creates huge challenges in day to day lives of the general people, inclusive approaches by the athletes with disabilities in their respective places will have rippling effects throughout the society at large. Arita Acharjee, Joint Secretary, Civilian Welfare Foundation points out, ¡°We have a long way to go for structured inclusion but maybe sports is the key; pandemic situations like this just make us realize how scattered are we without an inclusive world.¡±???????????