RISING FROM SILENCE MEDAL BY MEDAL

A para-athlete, coach, entrepreneur, and enabler for the disabled, she stands tall-a proof that destiny may cripple legs but never the will

-  Dilip Singh Kshatriya

FROM a cradle of pain to the crown of perseverance, this is the journey of Jagrutiben of Dholka in Ahmedabad district -a woman who rose from paralysis and poverty to power and purpose.

Struck by polio at six months, orphaned before she spoke her first word and burdened by hardship, she refused to yield. From threading cloth to throwing javelins, from selling sarees to sending her children abroad, she built her life stitch by stitch, throw by throw. Today, as a para-athlete, coach, entrepreneur and helper of the disabled, she stands tall proof that destiny may cripple your legs but never your will. They say "adversity introduces a person to themselves". For Jagruti, that introduction came before she learned to walk.

Born on March 2, 1977, she was just six months old when her fever turned fatal for her limbs. Polio paralysis struck, sealing her body in silence. And before her infant lips could call out "Ma", fate took her mother away. The cradle that should have been her heaven became her battlefield. At seven months old, she lost her mother and grew up in the care of her maternal aunt, who became her world. Poverty hovered constantly, but her aunt's affection became her shield.