Creating awareness one step at a time, champions with disability redefine grit at race
Telegraph | 23 December 2025
The right to dignity, livelihood, and the need to create a more empathetic society brought many people with disability onto the running track.
Neither a wheelchair nor a crutch could pose a hurdle.
Some ran for themselves, and some to raise funds for the cause of disability at the Tata Steel World 25K Kolkata, partnered by The Telegraph on Sunday.
Mohammed Asif Iqbal, 48, with zero eyesight, completed 25K in 3 hours 16 minutes and has so far raised ₹38,000 for the cause of disability.
A senior employee of a multinational firm, Iqbal, goes to Eco Park every day to run because “fitness is part of his regime,” he said.
“I prefer running outside to the gym because the experience is real with unequal terrains, speed turns, and road elevation, and thus prepares one better for the marathon. TSW25K is a platform that promotes health and fitness,” he said.
He rues that inclusion is still a long way off.
“As a society, we need to demonstrate empathy and not only talk about it,” he said.
450 runners registered for the champions with disability segment, where they ran 2.3K and created visibility for themselves, thus advocating for their rights.
20 individuals from the Rescue & Relief Foundation, an organisation that works with people with intellectual disabilities, came for the race to amplify their rights to a “fairer society” that would give them employment opportunities.
While they raced and walked, they have so far also raised ₹1,10,000.
The champions with disability segment included 15-year-old Kashyabaditya De, with autism, who was at the start line at 8.20am. The tennis player was accompanied by his mother and buddy, Susmita.
“When they participate in a marathon of this magnitude, it enhances their confidence. They might face a challenge in communication, but some of them are better runners than neurotypical individuals. When people without disabilities see that individuals with disability are walking with them, it helps to create awareness about them and their abilities,” said Susmita De.
But disability can also strike at any moment and change one’s way of life. The challenge is not to be cowed by it, said 35-year-old Pritam Das with a spinal cord injury.
“It was a bike accident in Barasat while I was in college that got me bedridden for two years. The injury was so severe that doctors told me I wouldn’t be able to walk,” said Das.
It was in 2014, six years after his accident, that Das could set out of his home.
“I run my own business now, and I don’t look back on what has happened,” he said, who was navigating in a wheelchair with his wife, Kalyani Banerjee, by his side.
Lack of eyesight failed to diminish the spirit of Penav Mota and Pravin Bhosale. Penav has no vision, and Pravin has 10 per cent vision.
“Running gives me mental peace despite having its own set of challenges,” said Penav who has done two full marathons in Mumbai and Pune.