First-of-its-kind Paralympic Sports Excellence Centre inaugurated

In a first of its kind, a National Centre for Excellence for Paralympic Sports by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) -- the National Centre for Divyang Empowerment (NCDE) – was inaugurated in Hyderabad to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD).

The NCDE, which will be developed into a centre to help re-skill the proud warriors & re-emerge as warriors in their new domains., will be in line with the Army Sports Institute and Para Node at BEG & Centre, Pune.

It should be noted that India has several champions from the Army centre, including Subedar Anandan Gunasekaran and Havaldar Aneesh Kumar, who brought home medals from the Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games. Both of them got treated at the Artificial Limb Centre in Pune and trained at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.

Gracing the occasion at the Group Centre, CRPF Rangareddy, Hyderabad, were PCI President Dr. Deepa Malik and seasoned Para Badminton player Parul Parmar, who represented the Para athletes at the inauguration.

Hailing CRPF on the initiative, Dr. Malik said: "I am delighted to welcome our braveheart soldiers to the PCI fold."

"The first time I visited the CRPF Centre was for a motivation lecture for the specially-abled soldiers post my Rio 2016 medal. That’s when the appeal was made to start a Divyang centre to empower the war wounded soldier. Four years later, I am so happy that finally a beautiful international standard para sports centre has been inaugurated. It is also a centre where the soldiers will be taught IT, and made experts in Cyber-crime, Artificial Intelligence etc. and alongside they will also be playing sports."

Speaking on the setup, the PCI President added: "Its a beautiful setup, 80km away from the city, well-equipped and open green space. A world standard sports facility with setup for variety of sports like archery, badminton, swimming, basketball etc. besides a hostel. They have ramps with correct gradient, sliding doors, customised bathrooms, adjustable beds etc with universal accessibility.

"And the most amazing thing is that the centre will not just serve the specially-abled soldiers but open to all," added Dr. Malik who also shared a session of technical knowledge on Parasport to the soldiers.

Arjuna Awardee Parmar added: "This is a great initiative by CRPF to empower our soldiers and respect them for their sacrifices. I hope to see many Para sport champions from this centre winning medals for India."

Shri G. Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Government of India, inaugurated the centre in the august presence of D.G. CRPF Dr. A.P Maheshwari IPS, both of whom were presented an official tie of PCI by Dr. Malik on the day.