Kolkata girl wins elocution contest on polio awareness

A nine-month-long pan India awareness campaign on polio among schoolchildren ended on Friday with a student from Kolkata winning an elocution competition.

The winner was awarded Rs 25,000.

Sparshika Chhaperia, a 17-year-old class 12 student of Kolkata-based Laxmipat Singhania Academy, was representing the east zone in the competition organised by the National PolioPlus Committee of Rotary International.

The event saw senior secondary students from four schools from four different zones of the country participating and highlighting various aspects of the disease and the role of voluntary organisations in eradicating polio as well.

The competition started in November 2011, with 500 schools from across 33 districts participating. After many stages, four schools reached the finals.

The other schools were New Era Senior Secondaery School, Vadodara (north zone), Centre Point School, Nagpur (west zone) and Bangalore-based Poorna Pragna School (south zone).

“Active participation of schools and enthusiasm of students have been instrumental in making this initiative successful.

Through this event, Rotary has been able to reach out to at least 10 lakh students by directly making them aware of Rotary’s Polio eradication programme,” said Deepak Kapur, chairperson of Rotary International’s India National PolioPlus Committee.