Opportunity for over 400 PwDs to compete and participate in Job fairs
by Suman Gupta
Delhi, 1 July 2019: With a view to mainstreaming of people with disabilities (PwDs) across the employment spectrum, the 19th edition of North Zone Regional Abilympics will be organized on July 4 and 5 at Lady Irwin College in Delhi. Hosted by the National Abilympics Association of India (NAAI), under the aegis of Sarthak Educational Trust, with the support of The Hans Foundation and InterContinental Hotels Group, Abilympics are the Olympics of the skill and abilities of PwDs. The Delhi event will attract participation of over 400 PwDs from Delhi/NCR, and adjoining North Indian states, including Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
The empowerment of PwDs has been one of top priorities of NAAI and Sarthak, who have joined hands with a view to mainstream PwD’s across the employment and industry segments and help India usher into a more caring and compassionate society. Delhi NCR alone has 2,34,882 PwDs, comprising of 1,38,379 are male and 96,503 female.
Since its inception in 2001, Abilympics have seen an immense growth with several stakeholders such as the Government, Corporate houses, prospective employers, crowd-funding platforms, investors, and start-ups joining hands to extend their support and appreciate skills of PWDs. This year is no different as more opportunities are being curated for PWDs to demonstrate their vocational skills and underscore their potential for employment across the industry spectrum.
The Delhi Abilympics is spread across 4 zones and 10 vocational segments, including ICT (Character Designing, Desktop Publishing, and E Sports), Crafts (Floral Arrangement), Food (Cooking and Bakery), Services (Jewelry, Tailoring/Dress Making, and Beauty Therapy), and Architecture designing through CAD. The winners in each segment will represent their zones at the National Abilympics, standing a chance to represent India in the International Abilympics 2020 slated to take place in Moscow. Candidates across India in the age group of 18 to 35 can participate by registering through the official website of National Abilympics Association of India.
The Delhi Abilympics will also witness a Regional Conference on ‘Corporate Progression Toward Inclusion and Diversity’ and will attract participation of several Government officials, NGOs, Corporates and their CSR heads, discussing prospects and scope of empowering and providing sustainable livelihood to PWDs in order to help them lead a life of dignity and self-respect.
One of the major attractions of Delhi Abilympics will be job fairs wherein over 25 companies will conduct their hiring drive for PwDs. This year a number of reputed companies, including Deal money, Big Basket, Metro Cash Carry, Capgemini, Aegi,s Concentrix, Pullman, Olive Group, Lemon Tree Hotels, Bigtel Solutions Reliance Fresh, Reliance Smart, Wanour, Minda Spark will participate in job fairs to hire PwDs. Over the years, thousands of PwDs have been placed through these job fairs. Some of the employers at the event will also share their experience of employing PwDs and will underscore how much they have gained in terms of low attrition rates, higher productivity, and loyalty of their ‘Specially abled employees’.
“Abilympics have been a wonderful platform for showcasing the abilities and tremendous competitive zeal of PwDs. They have also been an opportunity for all of us in the civil society to question that why inspite of being blessed with such mesmerizing talents PwDs are labeled as disabled?”, asks Dr. Jitendra Agrawal, Founder & CEO of Sarthak Educational Trust. “Census data shows that unemployment rate among PwDs is over 63% and every second person among them is illiterate. We can’t afford to continue to ignore this vital segment of society as its empowerment can not only make them self-reliant but will also tremendously contribute to India’s GDP that our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi wants to become $5 trillion in the next 5 years”, adds Dr. Jitendra Aggrawal.
Once a leading dentist in Delhi, Dr. Jitendra Aggrawal lost central vision of his both eyes in his early 30s because of macular degeneration, a leading cause of severe and irreversible visual impairment. However, he didn’t let his personal disability cripple him and through the dint of his determination and unflinching commitment to the cause of PwDs, he formed Sarthak Education Trust in 2008. Over the years, thanks to generous support that he got from the Government, leading Indian and multinational corporate houses, NGOs, the media, and an eminent board of his advisers, Sarthak has trained and secured lucrative placement for over 16,000 PwDs across the industry segments through its 18 centers in India. Sarthak has also facilitated medical rehabilitation of over 1,000 children born with disability through Infoedge (http://naurkri.com), Crocs, Capgemini, NSDC, Mahindra Finance and many more.
Apart from Dr. Jitendra Aggarwal, the Delhi event will be also be graced by Shakuntala Gamblin, Secretary, DePwD, Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI, Manish Kumar, CEO, NSDC, K. Narayana Rao, Group Dy. Managing Director, GMR, Padma Bhushan Dr. MB Athreya, Sarthak Mentor & Guru, Krishan Kalra, President, NAAI, Lov Verma, Former Secretary, DePwD, Ajay Kanchan, CEO, Media Today, Dr. Sudhir Gupta, Vice President, NAAI, Sandeep Bhargava, Vice President, NAAI, Atul Bhatnagar, Former COO, NSDC, SK Gupta, Former Deputy Director General at Department of Telecommunications
For participation, registration and any kind of support please log in to http://www.abilympicsindia.org. or call at 011 4200-4238.
About National Abilympic Association of India (NAAI)
The National Abilympic Association of India (NAAI) was formed in May 2001, at the behest of Ministries of Social Justice &Empowerment (MSJE) and Human Resource Development (HRD), Government of India. The association was launched to facilitate India’s participation in the 6th International Abilympics held in New Delhi in 2003, and in subsequent international events.
About Sarthak Educational Trust
Launched in 2008, Sarthak is engaged in mainstreaming peoplewith Disability through VOCATIONAL SKILLING AND PLACEMENT. The organization took over the National Abilympic Association of India in 2016. Sarthak Educational Trust empowers PwDs through its 18 centers in several metropolitan and tier 1, tier II cities across the country.
