For, the feisty 34-year-old, and youngest elected sarpanch of Changa village of Petlad talukar in Anand, has made it her mission to ensure that people stay fit .
Though she is visually challenged, nobody can accuse Sudha Patel of lacking vision. For, the feisty 34-year-old, and youngest elected sarpanch of Changa village of Petlad talukar in Anand, has made it her mission to ensure that people stay fit .
For this, she teaches yoga to scores of people in Kheda and Anand district. Though she is visually impaired, she was nominated as the head of the Kheda district by Baba Ramdev to teach yoga to people there. She has been regularly holding yoga shibirs in the district. Her shibirs are attended by more than 200 people.
"I have been doing yoga since 2005 and looking at the effort, ease and ability with which I do yoga, Baba Ramdev nominated me as the head of Kheda district for the same," said Sudha Patel.
Apart from this, she has won seven national and international awards for her work in education and welfare activities. She also holds the key posts various organisations that undertake welfare activities for the differently-abled.
Sudha and her younger sister were visually-impaired since birth but that did not prevent her from realising her potential. She has a MA B.Ed degree and teaches differently-abled students under the government sponsored programme of inclusive education of disabled.
"I teach yoga to the participants with help of my group members who ensure that the participants perform yoga as per my instructions," she said. Sudha said she has a target of teaching yoga to at least 1 lakh people and plans to go from village to village to achieve the same.
"I plan to visit 600 villages in Kheda and ensure that at least each village has a yoga teacher by the end of this year," said Sudha who lives in Vidyanagar with her foster parents and sister. Umesh Shah, who is helping Sudha in the yoga shibir said Sudha is like any other normal person.
"Her efficiency in whatever she chooses to undertake surprises us," said Shah. Sudha is married to a chef who is from Hyderabad. "A woman who regularly attended by yoga shibirs offered me a marriage proposal on her son's behalf. I met Sandip
and two years ago we tied the knot," said Sudha.
She has also helped get writers for physically-challenged SSC and HSC candidates. "I helped nine physically-challenged examinees get a writer," said Sudha.
Ask her what she wishes on Women's Day she said, "Just ensure that the physically-challenged are give proper education and equal opportunity. Everything else will fall in place."
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