An able scooter alert

As India celebrated the international day for people with disabilities, some geniuses like Malavika Tiwari, go the extra mile and contribute more to the society than just being part of the celebrations. She was the brain behind inventing the first scooter for people with upper limb disabilities. She is currently planning on expanding her business in Bengaluru and is connecting with NGOs to reach out to the needy.

Malavika was crowned a child scientist at 16, when she won the national award in the disabled category during 2006. Ask her about her achievements in the field of disability engineering she says, “Being the daughter of a physically challenged person, I knew the difficulties that my father faced during his travels. It was the desire to help him that made me devise the vehicle.” 

Participating and winning the Intel exhibition fair in 2005 pushed her to experiment on her innovative ideas, “The experience I gained during my Intel project years helped me to experiment on my ideas. I would say it was the defining moments in my life.” After that there has been no looking back as she went ahead and represented the country in the science review held in Arizona. She says, “I was struck by the idea of creating a scooter after observing that people with upper limb disorders did not have any options to commute.” This scooter which sells at Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 is available on delivery requests on her website.

About her plans for Bengaluru, she says that, “I am trying to ensure that we are able to meet the standards of Bengaluru roads and help people drive it comfortably. I am now alternatively designing a device that can be used on a geared scoter as well.” Apart from academics, she is an avid sportswoman and plays tennis and basket ball. She also loves reading  and in her free time is always busy in her lab experimenting, inventing and testing her ideas.