1) The document profiles several differently-abled heroes of India who have overcome disabilities and achieved great successes. 2) It describes individuals who have excelled in sports, academics, the arts, advocacy, and their fields of work despite facing disabilities such as visual impairments, loss of limbs, deafness, autism, dwarfism, and Down syndrome. 3) Many of the profiled heroes have received prestigious national awards for their accomplishments and contributions towards empowering and advocating for persons with disabilities.

1. Differently-abled Heroes
of India
Awarded by
Limca Book of Records

2. Born visually impaired in a poor family,
managed to continue his studies. Became the
first visually impaired candidate to qualify in
the SSC Hindi shorthand and stenography
examination. A Senior Manager with PNB,
Khan is also a singer and composer with over
50 music compositions. He received the
National Award for the Welfare of Persons
with Disabilities in 1989.
Akbar Khan

3. A national volleyball player, she lost one of her
legs when some robbers pushed her out of a
moving train. Two years later, with a prosthetic
leg on, she became the first woman amputee in
the world to climb Mount Everest and went on
to conquer the highest peaks on other
continents too. She was awarded Padma Shri in
2015.
Arunima Sinha

4. Bruised and maimed by a militant attack which left
him a wheelchair bound paraplegic with 100%
disability, Javed turned his adversity into a mission.
He started Humanity Welfare Organization Helpline,
an organisation that caters to the needs of people
with disabilities and creates awareness through
sensitisation programmes. His legal activism has
restored several rights of the disabled in the state.
He received the National Award for working towards
‘Welfare of Persons with Disabilities in 2004’ and
many other honours.
Javed Ahmad Tak

5. Despite 100% permanent sight disability, Aayushi
completed her LLB at 19 years and LLM at 21 years
and became the first visually-challenged advocate
enrolled at the Rajasthan High Court. She is the
youngest and first visually-challenged woman to be
admitted to the Bar Council of Rajasthan.
Aayushi Pareek

6. Wheelchair-bound since 8 years due to polio, he
rose to become a prominent oncologist introducing
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in India
with the first successful bone marrow transplant on
a leukemia patient. He won many awards,
including the Dhanvantari Award and Padma Shri in
2002 and the Padma Bhushan in 2012.
Dr Suresh Advani

7. Ramsurat Majhi
A polio victim with 90% disability, Ramsurat
travelled 23,000 km by tri-cycle visiting various
territories of India as a messenger of peace. He
started the challenging journey on Feb 16, 2010 and
completed it on Feb 10, 2011. In 2012. He
established an NGO, Adarsh Viklang Kalyan Samiti
and was honoured with the State Handicap Award
as a role model on Handicap Day in Kolkata on
Dec 3, 2013.

8. Ashwini Angadi
Born visually-challenged in a poor, rural family,
Ashwini experienced discrimination and physical and
mental abuses as a child due to her disability.
Despite these odds, she graduated at the top of her
class. For her work with disabled people, she
received the UN Special Envoy for Global Education’s
Youth Courage Award for Education in 2013. After
working as a National Facilitator for the Young Voices
Project, she set up the Ashwini Angadi Trust under
which she runs Belaku Academy for young
visually-challenged girls.

9. K S Rajanna
Rajanna who lost his limbs to polio in his early
childhood became the first differently-abled
Commissioner of the State Department for Disabled
in Karnataka. He had won the gold medal in discus
throw at the 2002 Paralympics and also a silver
medal in swimming. As a diploma holder in
Mechanical Engineering, he also had started his own
enterprise providing employment to 350 persons,
including the physically challenged.

10. Major Devender Pal Singh
(Retd)
Major D P Singh who lost his right leg during the
Kargil war and suffered partial hearing loss and
internal derangement of his left knee, has been
finding joy in running marathons with blade
prosthetics since 2009. He has participated in many
such races including the 3rd Himalayan Running
and Living XC marathon (21 km) at high altitudes
(8,700 ft) in Kinnaur, HP. He has also achieved the
feat of trekking up to 10,000 ft 3 hr.

11. Saylee Nandkishor
Agavane
Saylee was diagnosed with mild mental retardation
at birth but completed her studies. She started
learning Kathak at 9, later she trained in
contemporary dance forms. She has been
performing in various dance competitions, starting
with Akhil Bharatiya Sanskrutik Sangh’s Multilingual
Dance and Drama Competition. In 2010, she won a
bronze medal at the 8th Global Olympiad Dance
Competition in Bangkok.

12. Ranveer Singh Saini
The 14-year-old Ranveer, autistic by birth, is one
of the youngest golfers at Special Olympics
Bharat. He, along with his Unified partner Monica
Jajoo, won the gold medal in Golf (Level 2) at the
World Special Olympics at Los Angeles in 2015,
becoming the first Indian to do so. He also won
two gold medals in his first representation in the
Special Olympics Asia-Pacific Golf Masters at
Macau in 2013 and another gold in 2014 (team).

13. Zamir Dhale
Zamir is blind, deaf and mute, but through years
of toil and by sheer grit he has overcome the
disabilities to work as effectively others. Highly
tech savvy, he communicates using a special
software on his laptop/mobile. Working as a
consultant with Sense International-India, he is
actively involved in developing and implementing
advocacy plans. He also heads Udaan, a national
network for adult deaf-blind and multi-sensory
impaired people in India.

14. Rajive Raturi
Whilst working in Kenya, he suffered a bullet injury
which left him with a visual disability. Since then, he
worked towards building legal knowledge of rights of
persons with disabilities, supporting their advocacy
by providing legal services and aid. He challenged
systemic violations by filing PILs in High Courts and
the Supreme Court. He has authored a compendium
titled Disability and the Law. In 2010 the Ministry of
Social Justice and Empowerment nominated him to
an expert committee constituted to draft a new
disability law. He is now Asia Pacific head for the
Disability Rights Promotion International.

15. KY Venkatesh
Venkatesh is 4 ft 2 inch tall and due to his
short stature had to face lot of difficulties but
he braved all and decided to excel in sports
and started off with chess in school. In 2005
he became the first Indian athlete to represent
India at the IV World Dwarf Games. He won
six medals in the Games – two gold, one silver
and three bronze – in athletics and badminton
games (singles and doubles). He is also the
secretary of the Dwarf Sports Association
of India.

16. Radhika Chand
Born with Down’s syndrome, Radhika studied in
special schools. She started painting using a
combination of watercolors and acrylics. She has
had 10 solo exhibitions and participated in several
group shows. She has been associated with the
Vasant Valley School, Delhi for over 20 years. In
2012, Radhika was conferred the NCPEDP-Shell
Helen Keller Award for ‘helping to create
opportunities for employment for persons with
disabilities’.