The differently abled in Goa have now an opportunity to meet their possible life partner when an NGO organizes a meet your soulmate in Margoa. A similar event held in Panjim last month elicited a good response with people coming from all over Goa and even from the border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Avelino de Sa, President of DRAG which is organising the event on Sept 25 said the event was held for the very first time last month. He said “We had a very decent response for the very initiative in the state. Many people who wanted to get married but were not meeting with success, requested us to get involved and we decided to go ahead. Quite a few people in the differently abled community are not married. No figures are available”. What was interesting about the first event was the enthusiastic participation of boys with not many women coming forth. He hoped that the situation would be rectified in the second meeting in Margoa. He attributed this to the hesitancy amongst parents to get their disabled children married. They had doubts that they could live as a married couple. If they could bear children and if so would the children be healthy. This platform he said would be able to dispel such myths.
Avelino said at the meet there were differently abled men and women and even normal abled people who were willing to accept a differently abled mate. He said there was a boy who was differently abled married to a girl who was normal. There were people he said who were very accepting. With regards to the second event the organizing committee was entertaining calls from outside Goa from places as diverse as Sindhudurg, Karwar etc and these were calls from people from all religions. He said it was a meeting place where everyone could come forward, register and possibly meet someone.
Amelia Vaidya who is part of the organizing committee said she had been entertaining calls since the morning with people calling from all over. In the case of the girls she said the parents would call up and ask all the questions. The boys she said would call up and sort out their doubts. She expected to see more people at the second event because of the number of calls and the number of positive reactions to this initiative.
Vishant Nagvekar also part of the organizing committee is differently abled but is married to a girl without any disabilities. He said the basic idea was to create awareness that disabled could be considered for marriage even with normal people apart from other people with disabilities. He said in the last event there was a guy who was hearing impaired and his wife who was normal which was very inspiring. Vishant said just because they had a disability it did not mean they could not live a normal life. He said “I walk with crutches but I drive a car, which can be handled by hands. I work in the statistics section of the tourism department and I am fine. I met my wife in college and when we decided to get married, ten years ago there was some resistance from her family’s side but when they realised, I could manage, it was absolutely fine.” He said differently abled people were just as capable to tackle challenges one had to deal with. Vishant ended by saying it was important that everyone be given the opportunity to experience a normal life.
The Haemophilia Society will be conducting free blood tests for all participants if so interested. According to Kavthankar who is one and is part of the society, there are around 50 hemophiliacs in and around Goa and all of them are registered with them.
One can only wish them all the very best in this endeavor.
