Thums Up to Take Specially Abled on a Journey of Self Discovery

By 121 News

Chandigarh 18^th February:- Thums Up, one of India's leading beverage brands, today announced the launch of a 5,000 KM road expedition, which will take VEERs – the specially-abled – on a journey of self-discovery. The expedition will be led by Boniface Prabhu, Padmashree Awardee, World Championship medal winner (1998) and India's top quadriplegic tennis athlete.

Traversing through the longitudinal plane of India, criss-crossing 10 cities, Boniface will aim to finish the journey in 45 days beginning the second fortnight of April 2016. Thums Up in partnership with partners and NGOs will facilitate the expedition and the resources required for it, while also creating idea exchange forums and enabling community and civil society interactions. In doing so, Thums Up and Boniface believe that they will be able to unleash the potential within several VEERs in the country. As per the 2011 census, there are 26.8 million People with Disability in India and only 3% of them are gainfully employed in India unlike developed countries where the employment rate of people with disability is 30% to 50%. The World Bank estimates that excluding people with disabilities from the mainstream leads to an annual loss of 3%-7% of GDP.

Announcing Thums Up VEER K2K, Debabrata Mukherjee, Vice President, Commercial & Marketing, Coca-Cola India, said that Thums Up along with partners American India Foundation and Being Human, already run the VEER campaign, which trains the specially abled to make them employable. This year we are focusing on the softer aspects, taking guidance from the Prime Minister's Accessible India campaign. He added that we are glad that Boniface has agreed to lead K2K for us and he can't think of a better forum to announce the Mission than the #Make In India Summit. There also cannot be a better brand that Thums Up to undertake this Mission because Thums Up believes that everyone has the potential within - "Main Hoon Toofani". He wishes Boniface all the best and we will provide all the support required, by leveraging our vast supply chain ecosystem.

Elaborating on the ThumsUp VEER K2K, Boniface Prabhu said that while we are all focused on the core issues of technology, infrastructure, manufacturing etc at the #Make In India summit, I believe that we cannot make the India of our dreams if we do not leverage the skills and the potential of the specially abled. While on one hand, we need to mainstream the especially abled and create opportunities for them, on the other we also need to be sensitive to their unique requirements. I am hoping that this Mission will set the ground for some meaningful interventions in this space. Let us make an India, while making in India"