The legendary runner, Milkha Singh has backed India’s first Wheelchair basketball team. Rio Paralympics fetched us two gold medals, one silver and one bronze by our Indian contingents this year. But there are people with disabilities who aspire to participate in such events. An Organization called the Wheelchair Basketball Federation Of India has been working towards achieving this goal for a long time now.
WBFI was founded on 2011 by Madhavi Latha, a National level para swimmer and wheelchair basketball player. In an interview with The better India she said, “I founded a Trust that catered to the needs of disabled children; it was called ‘Yes We Too Can Do.’ One summer, we organised a summer camp for children with disabilities, where we invited coaches from abroad to teach children wheelchair basketball. And the response was amazing – like other young people these kids are extremely energetic and dynamic but haven’t had an outlet to channel these feelings.
It improved their confidence, fitness levels, and encouraged team building, so we thought we’d establish a wheelchair basketball federation at the national level.” Soon, The International Committee of Red cross extended its partnership with WBFI. Experts in wheelchair basketball were hired from across the world for this purpose. It also gained recognition by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation and was soon able to train 400 people with physical ailments in wheelchair basketball.
In 2014, A National camp with a total of six teams participated in Chennai and in a limited space of time, a National Wheelchair Basketball Championship was conducted with nine teams in Delhi. A team of 20 are now being trained to play for the tournament which will be held in Bangkok on January 2017. They will then be qualified to participate in the Men’s under 23 wheelchair basketball championship which will be held in Canada in June 2017.
WBFI has requested an amount of Rs.15 lakh for the purpose of flight tickets, participation fees, and equipment from its donors.“We actually need high performance sports wheelchairs that players from other countries use, but these cost around Rs. 3 lakh each. If we can’t get them, we want to send our team there with the basic models”, says Madhavi. Funds are needed to send the U-23 men’s team to Asia Oceanic Zonal Championship which will be held in Thailand on january 2017.
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