@JournalistAadil
Srinagar: Meet Ishrat Rasheed, an International Wheelchair Basketball player, a motivational speaker, Kashmir’s young leadership and young achiever’s awardee.
Ishrat was born in a village where female folk do not take part in any sports activities. She was also born into a family where there was no tradition of a girl participating in sports.
She, like other girls, had the same mindset, until she fell from the balcony of her house on August 24, 2016, breaking her spinal cord and leaving her physically challenged.
According to Ishrat, after that accident, I was a patient at the Voluntary Medicare Society, Srinagar, where I joined the Wheelchair Basketball team and was selected to play in the national championships in Tamil Nadu, representing Delhi. Jammu and Kashmir did not have a team at that time.
She said that I had collected some good players from Jammu & Kashmir and made a team for J & K. She played in the second nationals at Mohali while representing J & K. In 2019, she was chosen to represent India at the Asia-Oceania Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Pattaya, Thailand.
Besides that, she participated in a boys’ wheelchair race, being the only girl in that race, and secured first position in that race. She also plays wheelchair table tennis.
She said she is a motivational speaker now. I have delivered many talks in Kashmir and out of the state too.
Ishrat was also presented the Kashmir Young Leadership Award in 2021- and two more-times awards by the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha. She was presented the Kashmir Young Achievers Award in 2021 by Major General Prashant Srivastava, GOC Victor Force, on behalf of the Governor.
Braving all odds, she also drives the vehicle herself without anyone’s support.
She said in the beginning she faced difficulties in driving her vehicle, but I didn’t give up. In addition, one can achieve their dream; all that is required is hard work. Nothing is impossible in the world. The only things needed for that are courage and never giving up.
Recently Ishrat was presented the Women of Steel award 2022 by JKPCC President Ghulam Ahmad Mir.
