The road to empowerment: Kolkata gathers enthusiasm for IDPD 2025
The Statesman | 4 December 2025
The United Nations celebrates the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) every year on 3 December. The theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) for the year 2025 was declared as “Promoting Disability-Inclusive Societies for Advancing Social Progress.” To mark the occasion, the National Institute for Mobility of Persons with Disabilities, Kolkata, organised an awareness rally on 2 December. The rally started at 10 a.m. from RSM Square near Hind Cinema and continued till Y-Channel.
The event was inaugurated by the institute’s Director, Dr Lalit Narayan. Over 500 persons with disabilities, students, and staff from the National Institute for Mobility of Persons with Disabilities and its regional centres in Kolkata, the AYUSH, NRHM, and NCBDSS, enthusiastically participated in the rally. Director Dr Lalit Narayan commended the rally participants for their enthusiasm, commitment, and contribution to the empowerment of persons with disabilities.
Present during the rally were Pawan Kumar Patodiya (CA), Vice-President, Special Olympics Bharat, Chairman Special Olympics West Bengal, Subhash Chandra Agarwal, CMD, Maithan Alloys Ltd., Dr. Siddharth Pandey, Chief Executive Officer, HRD India, Sumit Agarwal, Brand Ambassador, NILD and J.S. Mehta, Founder & Chairman, Mahavir Seva Sadan, Kolkata.
To mark this occasion, the institute is organising debates, posters, slogan-writing, quizzes, essay writing, sports, painting, and street plays for the disabled, patients, and students on 2-3 December. On 3 December, the disabled and students presented a cultural programme.