The Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju on Thursday attended a virtual session on Thursday in the presence of Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) president Deepa Malik, revered Indian para-athletes Devendra Jhajharia, Parul Parmar and Shatabdi Awasthi, secretary-general, PCI, Gursharan Singh and chief patron, PCI Avinash Rai Khanna.
The session was held on the occasion of the 29th World Disability Day. During the session, Rijiju mentioned that all the para-athletes of the country are the strength and the source of inspiration for everyone and the Sports Ministry is leaving no stone unturned to support them.
"Our para-athletes and 'Divyang' warriors are our strength. They give us inspiration. In our Sports Ministry, there is no difference between an able and a differently-abled sportsperson. We felicitate them with the same amount of recognition, prize money, and so on," the Sports Minister said in an official release.
Rijiju also added that he will request the state governments to support the Paralympians in their respective region in the best possible way.
"I will request the respective state governments to have a policy for the 'Divyang' warriors like the central government has contributed, to support the Paralympians in the best way possible, from financial to coaching and training facilities to proper livelihood and so on. The government, the PCI, and everyone are a team and we need to carry on our work of supporting our para-athletes," said Rijiju.
Padma Shri, Khel Ratna, and Arjuna Awardee Devendra Jhajharia thanked the government for their immense contribution in always helping the para-athletes in a swift manner.
"Whenever we send a mail to the government stating our problems or things we need, we get a reply within an hour. I look at most training centres across India and feel so happy that the next generation of para-athletes will have no problem as the infrastructure and facilities are already in place. We cannot be more thankful to the government and especially our Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has asked everyone not to call us 'Viklang', but 'Divyang'. This has been an immense motivation booster for all of us," Jhajharia said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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