Mumbai: Every year on the third of December, 32-year-old Akash Kumbhar reminds himself that there is no time to be disillusioned with life even though an accident left him completely disabled.
World Disability Day is observed on December 3.
For Kumbhar, from Pune, it is a time to give back to society and encourage others like him to take up life as a challenge.
In August 2006 he met with an accident along the Pune-Solapur highway and sustained spinal injuries that made his legs dysfunctional. After months of treatment, Kumbhar began helping others like himself and even Maharashtra’s drought-hit farmers in Marathwada.
Every step that Kumbhar takes is difficult — he has to use a walker — but that doesn’t stop him from participating in various activities that help others.
On Thursday, he organised an event for the physically disabled in Pune, with the help of Cerebral Palsy Development Centre, Latur, and the Jan Kalyan Samiti in Pune, to gift wheelchairs to disabled students from the drought-hit areas.
“During his rallies, he also appeals to people through slogans and banners to donate money, which he has given to drought-hit farmers and also to our organisations,” says Ranganatha Joshi, an administrative officer, at the Jan Kalyan Samiti.
In the past, he had collected and donated funds to the Bidki and Ramgadh villages in Aurangabad to help villagers solve problems caused by polluted water.
While his family business has been taking much of his time, he now wants to concentrate on social work to help as many people as he can. In the Paraplegic Walking Marathon, he covered a distance of 42.2km in seven days, with the help of a walker and knee ankle foot orthosis.
The marathon started on December 1, 2014 and finished on December 7, 2014, at Nehru Stadium, Pune. For his safety, the Sancheti Institute of Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation provided full medical support with their team. His feat got mentioned in the Limca Book of Records.
His inspiration, he says, is Claire Lomas, who became a paraplegic as a result of a riding accident in 2007 but went on to become a campaigner, fund-raiser and known for finishing the 32nd Virgin London Marathon in 17 days using the ReWalk robotic suit. Kumbhar is also writing his biography to motivate other disabled people, apart from motivating drought-hit farmers.
