SHAZIA MASOOD
SRINAGAR, Mar 3: A wheel-chair bound, Javed Ahmad Tak has proved how determination can convert adversity into advantage.
He has not only changed his life but has also changed the life of other physically challenged persons in his home town Bijbehara in South Kashmir.
Being a victim of armed conflict in Kashmir, Tak survived after a bullet hit his spine but the injury left him wheel-chair bound. “I was so depressed when I was told that you will never walk again and two years went by and I was confined to the bed,” says Tak.
In order to finish that dull and depressed life, he decided to provide free tuitions to the poor children living in his vicinity. “I told my mother, get some children from the neighbourhood who were not in school and she brought two children,” he says.
His thirst to serve the society did not end here but continued thereafter. To quench that thirst he started a tuition centre and provided free education to orphans, the physically challenged and other students from a poor economic background.
This also helped him to overcome depression and loneliness. “To remain busy with the students also helped me to overcome my own pain and depression,” he recalls.
After that he completed his computer course and set-up a computer centre. “I setup a computer centre with a monthly fee of Rs 100 when other computer centres were taking Rs 500 for the same course and I was using this amount to pay the rent of the classrooms,” says Tak.
Meanwhile, he also completed his masters in social work subject. “It was seven to eight years before I stepped out of my home when I went to university for pursuing my higher studies,” he says.
He was again disturbed to see that the physically challenged persons have disappeared from the mainstream life. “As there were limited posts and career opportunities available for physically challenged people yet there was no reservation for them,” he says.
Tak said that despite struggles and challenges the physically challenged people manage to educate themselves but still they are unable to get jobs. “’I filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on behalf of physically challenged people to find out what our rights were,” he says.
Meanwhile, Tak completed B.Ed and M.Phill. He received the award of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) and is also advocating tor the rights of persons with disabilities.
Tak was among the 118 awardees to be conferred with the Padma Shri award for working for specially-abled children for over two decades, by providing them free education, material aid and motivation recently this year.
