Celebrate, but introspect

04.09.2017
Devendra Jhajharia’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna should make us proud. But will it change the way we treat para-athletes?

For the first time in India, a Paralympian, Devendra Jhajharia, has received the country’s highest sporting honour, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. Jhajharia, a Javelin thrower, shot to fame when he won his first gold at the 2004 Athens Paralympics Games after which he improved his own record to clinch another gold at the Rio Paralympics Games in 2016.

This honour will surely give a boost to young para-athletes given that the Indian public as well as the government have been ignorant of, or apathetic towards, the successes of our Paralympians even though these sportspersons won more medals in Rio than their Olympic counterparts.

This apathy was seen recently when a contingent of 46 hearing-impaired athletes returned to India after winning five medals, including a gold, at the Deaflympics held in Turkey. The athletes were in the news not because of their achievement but because they refused to leave the airport seeing that there were no sports officials or ministers to felicitate or even welcome them. After six long hours, a project officer with the Sports Authority of India finally went to meet them reportedly.

This is not surprising as Paralympics are not taken seriously in India as they are in other countries. As a result, media coverage of events and achievements is either limited or completely absent. Last year, for instance, the Rio Summer Paralympics weren’t even broadcast on Indian television. A golden opportunity was foregone to popularise these sports and familiarise the public with the names of para-athletes. How many even know of Devendra Jhajharia or Mariyappan Thangavelu?

Struggles before and after the event

While non-disabled sportspersons in cricket, and now perhaps tennis and badminton, search for good infrastructure and sponsors, sportspersons with disabilities find these struggles more difficult. Take the case of Kanchanmala Pande. The blind athlete was forced to beg in Berlin to take part in the Para-Swimming Championships as the money sanctioned to the athletes there by the government failed to reach them. Pande went on to win a silver and qualified for the World Championship.

The woes don’t end there. Para-athletes, even after winning medals, find it difficult to sustain themselves. It is not enough for the government to confer awards; it needs to go a step further and ensure that these sportspersons have job security in return for the pride and honour that they bring to the nation.

Of course, this attitude is not just towards para-athletes; it is a reflection of how society treats persons with disabilities. While this is a moment to celebrate, it is also a moment to introspect. Conferring a medal should not make us glaze over the larger problem. Unless we learn to treat para-athletes on par with sportspersons without disabilities, our jubilance must be restrained.