Dedicated University for Special Olympics
Tamil Nadu will soon have a Central Government-aided university in Coimbatore to provide diploma and PG diploma courses in special Olympics for the mentally-challenged, said M S Nagarajan, Regional Sports Coordinator, Asia Pacific Special Olympics.
In an interview with Express, Nagarajan said, ‘‘The university will be established with financial assistance from the University Grants Commission (UGC). It will start functioning from May 2007 with seven faculty members under the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya. The varsity will be the first of its kind in Asia Pacific.’’
Nagarajan was here to take part in a sports and cultural meet organised by the Paralympic Association, Vellore, for the differently-abled on Sunday at the Voorhees College.
He said from July 2007, the varsity would offer under-graduate and post-graduate courses in physical education, fitness therapy and yoga. The varsity would also offer M.Phil and Ph.D in physical education, said Nagarajan.
For diploma courses, the eligibility was a pass in SSLC and for PG diploma courses, graduation, he said.‘The courses are also open to persons with mild and moderate physical disability. The courses have enormous job potential as the government was recognising differently-abled sportspersons and providing financial assistance to them,’’ he added.
On special Olympics, Paralympics (for differently-abled) and Deaflympics (for the hearing impaired), he said, ‘‘The differently-abled have made our country proud in the international arena by taking part in special sports meets.’’Nagarajan said in the special Olympic meet held in 2003 in Dublin, 81 intellectually-challenged persons, including 41 women brought laurels to the country with a total of 110 medals.The country stood fifth among 162 countries with 34 gold, 36 silver and 40 bronze medals, he noted.
The courageous efforts of the disabled made the Union Government turn towards them. The government had also recognised the federations of the differently-challenged and financial assistance was also distributed through the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Nagarajan said.
But the state governments had not recognised the skills of the differently-abled sportsmen and women, he lamented. ‘‘The move of Ram Naik, Union Minister of Petroleum, in allocating a sum of Rs 1 crore through his ministry to the winners of the special Olympics in 2003 has come as a morale-booster,’’ he said.
