Paralympic Movement in India

The Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) is the body responsible for selecting athletes to represent India at the Paralympic Games and other international athletic meets and for managing the Indian teams at the events. India made its Summer Paralympic début at the 1968 Games, competed again in 1972, and then was absent until the 1984 Games. The country has participated in every edition of the Summer Games since then. It has never participated in the Winter Paralympic Games. In 1992 M. Mahadeva and others started an organization at national level for the promotion and development of sports for the physically challenged and named it the PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED SPORTS FEDERATION OF INDIA. This was registered in 1994 with the registrar of co-operative societies, Bangalore, Karnataka. Its first President was Rathan Singh. The objectives of this organization were to promote sports for the disabled in India. Its aims included: identifying disabled athletes throughout India, imparting necessary training to them and preparing them to take part in State, National and International Sports meets. The Paralympics is a very major international multi-sport event involving athletes with a range of disabilities, including impaired muscle power (e.g. paraplegia and quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy, post-polio syndrome, spina bifida), impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency (e.g. amputation or dysmelia), leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment and intellectual impairment. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).