Pingalwara’s specially abled athletes in list of probables

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 2

Staying true to their cause and mission, the All-India Pingalwara Charitable Society is celebrating the 24th death anniversary of its founder, Bhagat Puran Singh, with five days of social welfare activities. Ditching the conceptual glorification of its founding member during the celebrations, they have stuck to doing what they know best – making lives matter and better.

The society’s director and Bhagat Puran Singh’s successor, Dr Inderjit Kaur, announced a series of activities like blood donations camps, free medical camps for people in need, promoting handcrafts made by inmates of special schools and homes for destitute with an aim of making them self-reliant. But over the years, one of their biggest success stories has been their team of specially-abled athletes.

While two of them, Dolly and Shallu, represented India at the World Special Olympics Summer last year in USA, this year too, three of their athletes with mental disabilities have made it to the list of probables for World Special Olympics Winter to be held in Austria in February 2017. The three probables for the winter edition of World Special Olympics include Raju Rajinder (floor hockey), Sooraj and Poonam (athletes). “All of them suffer from mental disabilities and have been assigned special instructors that help them in their training,” said Col Darshan Singh Bawa, administrator, Pingalwara.

Changing the lives of abandoned children with special needs, the society has managed to give them a chance at glory by honing them in various disciplines. Setting up a training facility and infrastructure at its Manawala campus, Pingalwara’s special athletes have brought it laurels at the national and international level. Their disabled athletes also won medals at the District Special Olympics and the National Games this year.

“It all began five years ago when we decided to set up a training facility recruiting special coaches for the children with disabilities. Before that, the representation of sportspersons with disabilities from Punjab at the national and international level was almost non-existent. With help from our patrons and volunteers, we have managed to groom the young children into budding sport stars and a cycle has now begun,” says Col Bawa. Training athletes for track and field events, power lifting, floor hockey, basketball, cricket and other disciplines, the Pingalwara society has also cut out a significant budget for the dietary and health requirements of its special athletes.