Location: Uttar Pradesh, India
Medical condition: Polio
His story:Aameer was born in a poor family in Fatehpur district in Uttar Pradesh. Ameer has 4 older sisters, one of them passed away within 6 months. The town celebrated the birth of Ameer but soon after they were all disappointed when the only son at 18 months contracted polio and was destined to be a handicap for life. His hometown had no real doctors. His parents didn’t know better and the complications of polio could have been prevented but due to the lack of medical facilities and decent doctors, it got worse. Ameer was treated by the town’s quack. The quack had thought it’s just a fever and he gave him Paracetamol. His polio worsened. Aameer’s father realized that he had to take him to a qualified doctor to treat his polio. He found that there’s a doctor in Kolkata who is known to treat Polio cases. He took him there and was advised surgery since. His polio had progressed and caused quite a lot of complications. Unable to afford surgery, Ameer’s father sold the family land to pay for the procedure. Aameer still regrets that the family land was lost because of him.
His struggle: Aameer’s childhood was tough. Not only did he face bullying and discrimination from his school but also from his own family. He felt the discrimination mostly from family and especially at family functions. He remembers going to functions with his mother but since he required constant physical support to eat or to use the bathroom, the family members, became very irritable. He remembers that his aunt used to say things like “don’t bring him to functions” he is too much of work. Soon, his mother eventually stopped going for these functions and stayed with him at home. Aameer was 6 years old at the time. Ameer has faced discrimination all his life. He felt like an outcast and this made him feel very isolated. It wasn’t until; he met Kaikasha, the love of his life. He eventually got married. Since his wife is not differently-abled and to be accepted by someone who is not like him, changed his perspective on life.
His first step towards making a difference:Aameer thinks that the world for the differently-abled is quite different from the abled. He believes that there is a separate world, with a separate way of life and experiences. For example – to get certified as a specially-abled individual, Ameer had to travel 50 km, to go to the centre a few times, and if he’s lucky he would get an appointment with the Orthopaedic. However, the experience is not great because the doctors always have a negative mind-set about people trying to falsely claim a certificate. People also have a bias that specially-abled people are not educated, they’re poor or just trying to fake it to garner sympathy. Ameer watched the injustice and the way disabled people are treated. Particularly, when he went to claim his, he watched the people who were there trying to get theirs. The process was ridiculously tedious. And he realized that there’s so much he can do that can change India to create a barrier-free country.
His contribution to the society: Aameer has educated himself well with his many academic laurels in his hat (3 Master’s degrees and a PhD on the way). He started NGOs, Eagle Specially Abled Rider and Unity of Divyang. ESAR organizes awareness rides across India. They organize motorcycle rides for social issues like education awareness, rape-free India, and women's empowerment, etc. During lockdowns, he also gave rations, clothing, and food to underprivileged people. ESAR has about 500 para riders across India in their organization. And a total of 4000-5000 people working for both the organizations together. The organization, Eagle Specially Abled Rider's team was honored by Limca Book of Records Records& World Records India. Eagle Specially Abled Rider's work has been aired on NDTV and Swasth India.