Making Mission mobility a reality; a saga of Kali Vinod Tiwari
The hinterlands of UP are not rich in opportunities .To be a disabled ,when you live in these hinterlands
could mean losing what little margin of opportunity, there is .In any event ,you would be most unlikely
to think about fixing other people’s problems.
Kali Vinod Tiwari suffered a stroke of paraplegia, which incapacitated his legs at the age of three.
Misfortunes never deterred Kali Vinod Tiwari. His mother Mrs. Maheswari Devi died when he was three,
shortly after the paraplegia attack. He crawled on all the fours till the age of fourteen when he was
strong enough to handle the crutches and walk. His father Mr. Ram Narain Tiwari, a retired school
headmaster was the main source of inspiration for him. His Father got him admitted to an ashram run by
Swami Nardanand. He studied Sanskrit, and took Shastri degree from Benaras university, to adopt a
career of religious preacher as desired by his father. From the age of eleven when he was admitted to
ashram, till the age of fifteen he had acquired the knowledge and skill for giving religious discourses to
the gatherings for two to three hours.
He lost his father at the age of fifteen and this virtually snapped his relation with the ashram and career
of a spiritual preacher. As his urge to do research and be useful for others like him brought him to his
next phase of life of running a workshop and pursuing research in mobility sector pertaining to disableds
and ultimately succeeded developing India’s first auto-tri-wheeler for disabled. He possesses an
unflagging zeal for progress and for outing his best foot forward, He is relentlessly in pursuit of
knowledge. This pursuit of knowledge led him to acquire an LLB degree and degrees of Masters of
Arts(M.A) in Sanskrit, Hindi and English, all in first division .He also undertook training In Industrial
Management, Industrial Safety, And Internal And Overseas Marketing From Government Institutions. He
acquired all the educational qualifications and professional skills facing hardships due to his severe
disability. At the age of twenty he started a small steel furniture making unit at Kanpur which he
successfully ran for few years He had to close down his unit because of breakneck competition from
others having large workforce and capital resources. He neither got hurt nor got frustrated on closing his
unit and immediately launched another project. This time he took to repairing of scooters and
motorcycles. In this workshop he all set with his own ideas of research and for doing something
worthwhile for people like him he embarked on an ambitious project of making an ideal auto tricycle.
Which took three years of hard work and research before he could fabricate this auto tricycle powered
by a small 35 cc engine with proper hand controls and safely cruising speeds. In March 1980 the vehicle
was inaugurated on world day of disabled. His work was displayed and praised at various government
and social welfare organizations. The vehicle was demonstrated at 68th session of Indian science
congress in Varanasi, and earned appreciation of scientists. He had also formed Disabled’s Club of India
in 1976 and entirely run by disabled persons. In 1981 on international year of Disabled’ he organized
first ever rally on auto tri cycles from Kanpur to Delhi. Where he was honored by Central ministers and
earned appreciation of former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
In 1982 Mr. V.P Singh the then chief minister UP honored him for his invention and UP governor CPN
Singh gave him a gold medal. He also received Syed Akhthar gold medal for saving life and honor of
fellow disabled beings. He got state award in 1983 and National award in 1984. In the same year he got
a red cross medal entitled Viklang Vibhushan from Indian red cross.
And then there is the woman behind the man with an interesting story. Mrs. Rama Tiwari, who was
working in a multinational company in Bengaluru, was attracted by Tiwari’s fame spread all across the
country. She married him in 1985 and both decided to work together and dedicate their life for the
disabled.
In 1990 he went on an epic journey to almost every corner of the country. He drove his customized
vehicles across India’s dangerous highways through Fourteen states to study the self mobility problems
of disabled persons in different conditions and covered a world record making distance of 12280 kms
.During this journey he discovered that apart from self mobility there is a great accessibility problem
plaguaging the disabled people as all the structures, places are inaccessible to them..
All through these years he continued doing comprehensive research on different kind of disabilities and
developed more than 50 models for almost every kind of disabilities. His children who grew watching
their father’s fight against disability –joined forces with him. His daughter Malavika tiwari developed a
first ever fully foot driven scooter for people who have no hands (Upper Limb disability). She won Gold
medal in India, She also represented India in the prestigious International science and engineering fair in
Arizona, USA. Later she won National award- 2005 for the same. His son Mukund Tiwari developed a
multifunctional self mobility and physiotherapy system for Spastic children. Which also got a gold medal
in India, and his work was displayed at International science and engineering fair in Indianapolis, USA.
He was awarded the National award in 2006.Inspired by Mr. Tiwari , his whole family is engaged in one
way or the other for the welfare of disabled persons. It is significant to note that her wife Rama tiwari is
a special educator of repute for spastic and mentally retarded children at an army school; and perhaps
this is the first family of five in India of which three are national awardees.
In 2007 Mr. Tiwari was given the Cavin Care Award of Eminence in recognition of “excellence achieved
against all odds”. At present he is engaged in his work with meager resources at his disposal without aid
of any agency and prefer to take help of disabled only, to promote his projects and programmes .He
does not crave for anybody’s compassion or charity much less pity because he never suffered self pity
during all his life. At present he is also engaged in a Barrier free awareness movement for disabled at
Kanpur which he has launched in December 2008. Soon he is going to launch this movement all across
the country.
On 19th January, 2010, he was conferred with IBN 7 Bajaj Allianz Super Idols Award (In Special Idol
Makers Category) at Mumbai.
