Mohammed Salih overcame illness to win the first prize in a chess tournament in Andhra Pradesh, playing in the disabled category. With no full-time job, Salih is fully reliant on the prize money from tournaments to sustain his family. I’d like to be there with him, but we can’t afford the train tickets and lodging for two people. And unfortunately, even our cities don’t have the requisite infrastructure for persons with disabilities (PwDs).

Click on this link to share this petition over WhatsApp with your friends and family. https://cutt.ly/lBY2YeV. We need a lot more signatures, at least 20,000, to make an impact and help Salih get a government job through the sports quota. Click on this link to share this petition on Twitter.

This week, Salih also gave an interview to a Malayalam YouTube news channel, where he talked about his journey of being a para-athlete. That interview should be out soon, and will be a larger commentary on the support structures that we have in place, or lack thereof, for para athletes such as Salih.

There’s also a community of called Ittara, comprising student volunteers interested in social activism, who for the first time, have taken up the task of campaigning. They’ve been moved by Salih’s story and his struggle, and have started mailing postcards with our petition text to Kerala’s Sports Minister and Chief Minister. Salih feels touched by this gesture.

Let’s continue building the momentum for this campaign. We’re trying to get a meeting with parliamentarians who may be able to help us take Salih’s appeal to the decision makers.

Click on this link to share this petition over WhatsApp with your friends and family. https://cutt.ly/lBY2YeV. We need a lot more signatures, at least 20,000, to make an impact and help Salih get a government job through the sports quota. Click on this link to share this petition on Twitter.