Int’l, national coaches to train specially-abled kids in rifle shooting
LUCKNOW: A team of differentlyabled children of Drishti Samajik Sansthan left for Agra on Sunday to attend a weeklong rifle shooting camp, where they will receive guidance from international and national level coaches.
Minister for women welfare and child development Rita Bahuguna Joshi flagged off the van in which the kids left for Taj city.
The team comprises five girls and two boys, Ayesha, Kiran, Anjali, Aasha, Muskan, Ritendra and Amit, as well as Drishti director Atharva Bahadur and joint director Shalu Singh. Both Bahadur and Singh are trained shooters who coached the team at the shooting range on Drishti campus.
Coaches Dr Ashok Rana, Vikrant Tomar, Imran Khan, Gaurav Rawat, Divyanshu Mishra and Mayank Pathak will be among those who will guide the children at the special camp.
Appreciating Drishti’s social work spanning 30 years, the minister said she hoped that the camp would facilitate the team in participating in Paralympics Games.
The children will also tour Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and other monuments during their trip, returning on June 3.
Drishti houses 220 abandoned children facing multiple challenges. Apart from providing them various types of vocational training and education, the centre also exposes them to sports.
“Shooting is one such sport that helps these children in their physical and mental exercise, as it needs a lot of concentration,” said Bahadur, son of Drishti’s late founder Neeta Bahadur. He is a national level player in 10m pistol shooting and has received training from Olympian Gagan Narang in Pune. Singh has also received shooting training in Pune.
Together they identified eight children who have been getting pistol training at Drishti’s indoor Olympics-standard shooting range, which was inaugurated by justice Rakesh Srivastava and the UP State Rifle Association president Ramendra Sharma in 2017.