Faizan Ahmad
Srinagar Nov 09 (KINS): Javid Ahmad Tak, who received Padma Shri from the President of India on Monday, is disabled for the last 24-years and is on forefront to help the needy in Kashmir.
He is not able to walk or stand on his legs for the last 24-years. But that has not broken his willpower to help the people amid the covid-19 in Kashmir. Despite his physical limitations, he has taken up a task to bring a smile to the faces of disabled population.
Hailing from South Kashmir’s Bijbehara area, he remains busy the whole day collecting details about the needy disabled population.
“Since March last year, I and a team of volunteers have been collecting details about needy disabled people and then providing them financial support. We also provide eatables and medicines. I don’t have an exact number but we have helped thousands of people including disabled, widows and children of downtrodden families,” Tak told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS). “Once we identify such families, we make proper verification before dropping these items at the doors. Our first priority is disabled population, then we help others,” he added.
Like others, people with disabilities have been facing a number of problems since last year. They are finding it difficult to manage the day-to-day chores.
Tak has been collecting public donations to run his non-government organization ‘Humanity Welfare Organization Helpline’. “People are generous enough to help our NGO,” he says. His NGO is also running Zebunnisa Helpline School in Bijbehara.
Tak was not born disabled. He has been the victim of the ongoing Kashmir conflict. He was a normal person and had gone to his uncle’s home in 1997, who was Block President of the mainstream party National Conference. He was then pursuing his bachelors from Anantnag Degree College in South Kashmir.
“Some unknown gunmen had come to kidnap my uncle. They fired bullets. Several bullets hit me and damaged my spinal code. I was hospitalized for two years. Since then I can’t walk and move only on a wheelchair,” he narrated, whose lower part is paralysed.
Later, he did his masters in Social Works from the Kashmir University in 2005-2006.
Before the tragic incident he was also selected for MBBS in Iran. But that incident shattered all his dreams.
Disabled people are facing a lot of issues, says Tak adding, “society is not accepting them. There is a social stigma attached to us. People can give their daughters to drug addicts but not disabled person”. (KINS)
