News

Volume 2 Issue 24 - December 15, 2004

Helen Keller awards presented

DNIS News Network - The 6th NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller Awards were presented in New Delhi.

At a pre-World Disability Day event, on December 2, the 6th NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller Awards were presented to 10 individuals and three organisations, by Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, in New Delhi.

The winners in the category ‘Disabled persons within disability sector’ are:

• Kapil KumarAggarwal, Founder and Hony General Secretary, Viklang Sahara Samiti.
• Sachu Ramalingam, Head of Vision Rehabilitation Centre, and Project Coordinator Paediatrics, Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital.
• T. Sesha Giri, Office Superintendent, Commercial Department, S.E. Railways, Kharagpur, and Founder and President, South Eastern Welfare Association for the Handicapped.

The winners in the category ‘Disabled persons outside the disability sector’ are:

• Jyotindra V. Mehta, Advisory Systems Consultant, IBM Global Services India.
• Rigzian Sampheal, D.S. Lokesh Kumar and Ravi Kumar Arora (joint winners), young men who were termed ineligible for the Indian Civil Service on account of their disabilities, and who successfully fought against this injustice.

The winners in the category ‘Non-disabled persons within disability sector’ are:

• C. Antony Samy, Managing Director, WORTH Trust. (Read his interview, "If you do not move fast enough, you will be run over".)
• M Srinivas, Chief Employment and Placement Officer, National Association for the Blind, Karnataka Branch.

The winner in the category ‘Non-disabled persons outside the disability sector’ is:

• Nishant Dattatray Mhatre, Senior Officer and Project Coordinator, Bombay Textile Research Association.

The companies/organisations which have been awarded are:

• J.W. Marriott Hotel, Mumbai.
• Kinetic Engineering Ltd, Pune.
• National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd, New Delhi.

For the first time in the six years since the inception of the Awards, joint recipients have been announced for one of the awards. The ever-increasing number of nominations – this year 135 were received – clearly indicates the increasingly difficult job of choosing winners from a growing pool of people committed to changing the lives of people with disabilities.

This year’s winners were declared after intense deliberations by the Selection Committee, whose members were: Arun Seth, Managing Director, India & SAARC of British Telecom (Worldwide) Ltd; Kevan Moll, Country Director, VSO India; Sarabjeet Singh, Member, Principal Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal; and Dr. Shailaja Sharma, Manager External Affairs/Corporate Identity, Shell India. Subodh Bhargava, Executive Trustee, NCPEDP, presided as the Chairperson.

(For details of NCPEDP's World Disability Day celebrations, see feature 'Celebrating art and ability'.)