Purple Fest 2023 came to a conclusion on Sunday with sports events being the major attraction on the final day.
Office of the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Goa & I-Help Foundation Goa (a non-profit organisation) organised Purple I-Run Goa Marathon, which is Goa’s 1st National Marathon for 21 types of disabilities.
The half-marathon event, held at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Bambolim; aimed to promote inclusiveness and acceptability of people with disabilities in our society. People with disabilities ran together with other runners in all age categories. All the participants of special categories were felicitated at the event.
Sangeeta Vishnoi from Jodhpur, Rajasthan participated in the Purple I-Run with full enthusiasm and positive vibes. She ran 2 kilometres with other participants in the half-marathon. Despite being a person with a Cheetah Foot, also called as Blade-runner, her enthusiasm and participation at Purple Fest was hailed.
The Inter-State Blind Cricket Tournament final was held today. The tournament witnessed a total of six teams participating including Goa, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Pondicherry and Telangana. The 20 overs match is governed with basic rules of cricket while team comprises four completely blind players, three who can see up to a distance of 2 metres and four with 6 metres vision. In the final at Goa Cricket Association ground Porvorim here on Sunday, hosts Goa went down to Telengana by 152 runs. The visitors also registered the highest team total of 312 runs, for the tournament. Goa thus emerged runners-up.
The closing ceremony was, meanwhile, held at Inox Courtyard in the presence of Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant and Union Minister of State for Tourism, Shripad Naik who presided over the function alongwith Nilesh Cabral, PWD, Minister, Subhash Phal Dessai, Minister of Social Welfare, Digambar Kamat, MLA, Sadanand Shet Tanavade, President, BJP, Subhash Chandra, IAS, Secretary, Guruprasad Pawaskar, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities and Taha Haaziq, Secretary, Office of the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.
Dr Sawant said: “I visited the Jagruti Mela and saw all the NGOs together assisting the parents of Persons with Disabilities. And that brought immense joy to me.”
Shripad Naik said : “Society is accepting the Divyang (Persons with Disability) more openly. The are getting more respect and opportunities that they deserve and Purple Fest is a brilliant example of it.”
Shubash Phal Dessai said, “The speakers who came here for the talks empowered those with disabilities to become socially acceptable, economically, and educationally-empowered. We are trying to give them the best educational facilities, safety, security, and protection and ensure good laws And acts are enforced from the policy point of view.”
