The Bengal Chapter Of Special Olympics Is Paving The Way For An Inclusive World

Ritam a special child used to go to his nearby community ground and always use to ask the ¡°general¡± kids around to include him. No one included him in any sports until a special Olympics coach started Unified sports camp in that ground. As the camp was coming to an end Ritam became popular. One day Ritam couldn¡¯t come to play in the camp as he was sick. To his utter surprise, all the ¡° general kids¡± from the community came to his house to spend time with him! That is what you call true inclusion stated Lina Bardhan, Principal & Secretary, Noble Mission school (a school for children with intellectual disabilities) who has been associated with Special Olympics for the last 30 years.

When I asked Nathan, a young student of Frank Anthony public school about why he chose to be in unified sports? his answer was quite straight forward: where can I find such diversity and challenges? This is a unique opportunity for me.

Somdutta Barua

Till date, West Bengal has more than 15 schools in the Unified School Program and more than 200 children playing unified sports at various levels. Currently, the program runs in Kolkata and North 24 Pargana districts and will be extended to Howrah District from June 2020.

For people who are guessing what is unified sports? It is an inclusive sports initiative that unites Special Olympics athletes (individuals with intellectual disabilities) and partners (individuals without intellectual disabilities) as teammates for training and competition. In Bengal, Unified School Program which integrates these two groups by unifying schools for students with intellectual disabilities and schools without intellectual disabilities by a sustainable sports curriculum that runs throughout the year.

Somdutta Barua

Ever since on its 50th Anniversary, Special Olympics announced a landmark collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to support the global social inclusion through inclusive sport, Unified School program started its journey. In 2018 Special Olympics Bharat, the governing body for Special Olympics in India initiated the program in India with four states West Bengal , Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.

When asked about why the way forward to inclusion is unified sports? Bibek Bardhan, Ex Vice-chairman, Special Olympics Bharat said ¡°Sports is a unique and accessible medium of social inclusion. It allows the breakdown of barriers between people without disability and those who have some form of disability since the results are immediately experienced. Moreover, since sports provide pleasure and happiness stigmas about PWD are ignored and slowly forgotten. Though he also laments that "implementation of the recent RPWD Act 2016 which promotes inclusive sports are yet to be taken up and there is no effort to spread awareness among policymakers at the government and federation levels. Funds allocated are meager and there are yet no steps for disability infrastructure around the country."

Mr. Ashok Chaki, Area Director, Special Olympics Bharat, West Bengal chapter stated Bengal has already started unified sports in Cricket, Football, Volleyball, Handball, and Floorball even before the Unified school program was initiated As a result we achieved success pretty fast and some our unified Athletes & partners of our state participated in 2015 in 2nd South Asian Unified Cricket Tournament and represented Indian Team in Bangladesh, Dhaka. In the year 2019 one of our Unified Partner of our state West Bengal represented the India team(Unified) in Football at Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019. He added that many of the unified partners/Athletes of our state participated in National Games also.

There are several tools present for the empowerment of persons with disabilities but sports participation is by far one of the most holistic tools that have been successfully implemented by several countries in Europe and South America.

Somdutta Barua

When Sports Psychologist Anusheela Brahmachary was asked about the benefits of sports for persons with disabilities she mentioned ¡°Sports demand both physical and mental participation. The most apparent impact of sports is that it stretches the horizon of physical abilities like endurance in a person. In a country like India where accessibility is poor, it immediately acts as an advantage by increasing the mobility of a person with a disability. She added ¡° simultaneously, sports participation has deep a psychological impact on a person with intellectual disabilities. Since sports is a performance-oriented tool, it impacts the self-esteem and the self-efficacy of a person positively. The achievements associated with sports participation can effectively wipe out the feeling of incapability and inadequacy in a person with disabilities and reverse it into strong confidence and self-worth.

Mr. Chaki also welcomed new schools that want to participate in the Unified School Program and requested the state government of West Bengal to issue a circular to the schools to participate in Unified School Program.

While Right To Education Act 2009, talks about inclusive schooling but the implementation of the act has been so far very poor in terms of enrolment of children with disabilities in general schools. Thanks to Special Olympics Bharat, Inclusion is getting a new edge in Bengal!.