Out of the 183 Indian athletes who participated in the Special Olympics World Summer Games held in Athens, Greece in 2011, 40 were diagnosed with hearing loss and they have been provided with this instrument.
"These are high quality digitalised devices and it has to tested to the exact degree which is required by the athletes. So far 24 of them have reported for testing and they have been provided with two piece of hearing instrument each costing between Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh," said Avinash Grubb, senior audiologist of Phonak India Pvt ltd.
India had won 243 medals, including 78 golds, 73 silver and 92 bronze during last year's Summer Games and a few of the atheletes with treated hearing loss, including Sharmila Kumari (Power lighting), Sangeeta Sharma (Volleyball), Sunny Sharma (Volleyball), Pooja (volleyball), Kavita (handball) and Akansha Tiwary (basketball), were present on the occasion.
Sneha Tiwary, sister of Akansha, who had won a silver in basketball, said the instrument was helping her younger sister and hoped it will help in her game.
"They are more accustomed to reading lips, so it will take some time for them to get used to it. But once they get used to it, it would help them a lot, it has just been a week or two," she said.
Keshav Cheturvedi, who won two gold and two silver in powerlifting, also was happy with the new instrument.
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"He is very happy with this device. It will help him immensely," his mother said.
The programme was also attended by Denzel Keelor, chairman of Special Olympics Bharat and Andreas Geisinger, Managing Director, Phonak India Pvt ltd, besides the parents of the athletes. PTI ATK KHS