In one of its kind initiatives in India, CLAW (Conquer Land Air Water) Global has been officially made into a reality in early 2020 by a team of Indian Armed Forces veterans which include the special forces personnel both from the para regiment and MARCO (Marine Commando).
Major Vivek Jacob (Veteran – Indian Army, Special Forces) is the Founder and Director of CLAW Global and Operation Blue Freedom. CLAW envisions to facilitate the institutionalization of high-end adventure sports, survival training, and self-defense capabilities, especially for the disabled. Though focused primarily on ‘Physiological Disabilities’, the organization has dealt with ranges of it within the spectrum, including people who are neck down paralyzed.
In an exclusive interaction with LifeBeyondNumbers, Ex-Army Major Arun Prakash Ambathy, one of the directors of CLAW Global, has given us a sneak-peek into its organizational vision.
CLAW – The Journey
Though conceptualized at the beginning as the Special Forces Adventures (SFA) in 2019, within a year SFA was rechristened as ‘CLAW Global’.
During his service days, founder Major Jacob’s parachute malfunctioned in mid-fall during a Combat Skydive. He escaped alive but suffered a spinal cord injury. During that period, his co-hospitalization with wheel-chair bound Flt. Lt. Bhaduria who was paralyzed for 4 years due to a freak accident during the services, led to Jacob’s familiarization with the lives of disabled people.
“This life experience led to a new consciousness and passion to improve the lives of people with disabilities (PWDs). He set out to add value to people’s lives through the application of the specialized skill-sets that ‘Special Forces Soldiers’ possess”, Ambathy explains.
This resulted in Jacob forming a team of former special forces soldiers for the rightful infusion of their shared vision and specialized skills for the betterment of society at large. The combative efficiency acquired by the Special Forces soldiers is channelized creatively– “CLAW Global aims to diffuse and institutionalize the ‘Special Forces Mindset’ to enable growth and ‘Freedom’ for one and all”.
“It gives us immense satisfaction, efficiency, and competitive edge to Dream, Catalyze, and Explore,” Ambathy expresses his satiation in being able to emulate the high degree of trust and brotherhood of the Special Forces Units, driven by ‘Self Motivated Hyper-Action’, into a world of civilians.
Operation Blue Freedom
Launched originally under the flagship of SFA in Chandigarh in June 2019, ‘Operation Blue Freedom’ celebrates the power of disabled people as a statement of motivation, adaptability, and change.
“Operation Blue Freedom leverages high-end Adventure Sports activities like Scuba Diving, Sky Diving, and Mountaineering to showcase and mainstream the mutually complementing ‘Survive, Stabilize, Thrive’ mindset of the Special Forces and PWDs,” Ambathy elaborates. As an expression of spirit and ability of the ‘disabled’, the project envisages perceptional transformation regarding the lives of PWDs and calls for their right to inspire freedom.
For over a year, the project has trained “more than a hundred people with disabilities in scuba diving in confined waters”. Eventually, the journey kicked off when the team took a selected few among the trained, both men and women, to Lakshadweep for their first-ever dive in the open seas. On May 5, C.L.A.W Global has launched the official trailer of the project titled ‘Operation Blue Freedom: Genesis’. It chronicles the first part of the journey capturing the glimpses of Scuba diving experiences with the disabled along the coast of Lakshadweep.
Navin Gulia was the first person in a wheelchair to go through their scuba diving experience. He is a record holder in adventure Sports, multiple awards winning, internationally acclaimed, author, adventurer, thinker, orator, and a social worker.
Pradeep Kumar Ritwal, the former MARCO Saturation Combat Diver, now turned into a C.L.A.W Scuba Diving Instructor, had lost one of his legs during the service. Though that may have hampered his pace in the water, once he touches the water, it reincarnates the feeling of his belonging. After all, though maybe in chains of gravity on the land, in the water he experiences freedom!
Challenges
When asked about the challenges faced, Ambathy did not deny the innumerable hardships- “At times it was the ingenuity that sailed us through, at times it was sheer magic and miracle unfolding in front of us; where-in the right people got in touch at the right time.”
The team started out from scratch. There was no money. What little they could save up from their gratuity and their meager pensions coming in, they pooled. At each step, they found themselves facing impossible odds matched only by their impossible dream. At each step, they threw in whatever little they had and moved into the unknown. The dream always won. Magic always happened.
The Way Ahead
Currently, the team is preparing for the ‘Triple Elemental World Records’ that include the largest team of People with Disabilities to scale Mount Everest, skydive together in a single event, and scuba dive together in the open sea conquering the land, air, and water respectively. Towards the achievement of the goal, coordination has been carried out with the ‘World Record Academy’.
“People with disabilities are more enthusiastic and responsive as compared to the able-bodied people to participate in adventure sports as it induces psycho-physiological health benefits in them,” Ambathy reveals.
In the future, C.L.A.W Global plans to enable PWDs to the extent that it enhances their employment opportunity. At the same time, it seeks “suitable re-employment opportunities for retiring ‘Special Forces Operatives’ through enabling new life purpose and social entrepreneurship”. Though so far, they have pulled the fund themselves, Ambathy could not be more thankful for the materials and resources like accommodation, swimming pool access for training, and scuba diving gears, etc. received from the well-wishers and volunteers.
The concept of ‘freedom’ may come in various shapes and forms. Though there is no dearth of advocates of individual freedom, it is the concept of ‘collective freedom’ that entices the team C.L.A.W. It is for that reason that in the aura of the limitlessness of nature, the ‘band of brothers’ seeks to plunge into the deepest despite the mainstream notion of the limited capabilities of the people with disabilities.
What is your definition of ‘freedom’?