Apathy worsens para-athletes' struggle

“At the Incheon Asian Games in 2014, I was getting into the bus at the village,” a para athlete shares her story. “My escort, a Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) official, was not with me and I fell down and had to be taken to the hospital." With no support by her side, she had to overcome the emotional and physical stress on her own.

Another para-athlete, who is visually impaired, has another such tale that happened during a meet in 2018 in Dubai.

"At first the federation (PCI) said the meet will be government-sponsored but later they changed it and said it was not. That's Rs 4-5 lakh in travel for one person, even more since I need help. I had to borrow money from friends and I went, all alone. I was helped by my team-mates a bit, but they had their own events. I missed my main event that day because I didn't know when it was happening. This is because of nontransparency from PCI".

The general notion is that the only help PCI officials offer is during paperwork or at the medal ceremony.

There are more such stories.

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There is a sense of dissonance when one speaks to para-athletes and authorities at the PCI, almost as if the two were narrating the same version of events from different realities.

There is one reality, where the PCI says they are doing all they can for the benefit of para-sports.

In the other reality, things are not as rosy. Here, athletes have been struggling for years without any real support. The tournaments, while conducted, are shabbily organised. What is worse, the organisers show little respect or regard for the sportspersons and the underlying attitude is one of charity.

There is a common phrase that accompanies this attitude, that is both raison d'être and a soothing balm of excuse: "We are doing it for the athletes after all."

The phrase held the authorities in good stead even during the fiasco of the National Para-Athletics Championships held in Bengaluru recently.

“A successful event in challenging times” is how Gursharan Singh, PCI Secretary General, described the three-day meet.

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In a nutshell, the championships were moved from Tamil Nadu to Karnataka on March 20, four days before the event was scheduled. With less than a handful of days to prepare for the event and get permissions from the necessary authorities, the PCI did manage to hold the event, even if it was shoddy.

Deepa Malik, who won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and now heads the PCI, announced that last week’s championship will not qualify as a Tokyo Paralympic selection trial at the conclusion of the event. It was a different tune at the start when it was an Olympic qualification event. Later, the Secretary General said yet another version to DH, where the athletes who performed well will be selected to participate in international competitions, to attain world ranking points and obtain a Paralympic quota.

As such during the competition, some events were held under torchlights. Multiple athletes have said there no Covid-19 protocols were followed and there was a constant change in schedule. There are also issues with classifications and some of the results have been withheld following protests from athletes.

"I have been a para-athlete since 2010. I can honestly say that the federation has never treated athletes with respect. They have no transparency, communication or accountability. Even in tournaments, administrators communicate like the athlete is worthless, like they are doing charity. They say ‘We do it for you’ but they have to. That is their job. They are not an NGO," said an athlete on the condition of anonymity.

"They (PCI) will cause a lot of problems for you if you speak out," the athlete adds.

History of misgovernance

The undeniable fact is that PCI has time and again been found wanting when it comes to governance.

The Sports Ministry had de-recognised the body in 2019 due to violation of the National Sports Code, only to reinstate it a year later.

The PCI was also suspended in 2015 by the International Paralympic Committee over infighting and poor treatment of athletes during the National Para-Athletics Championships at Ghaziabad. The Sports Ministry too served the body a show-cause notice for poor conduct of the event and subsequently issued comprehensive guidelines for the conduct of para meets in the country.

But the haphazard conduct of the event in Bengaluru calls into question the competence of the technical officials and how well-versed they are in conducting a para event, which is significantly more complicated affair due to the number of events, categories and subcategories like wheelchair, visually impaired, dwarf, cerebral palsy, amputees and more.

The Standard Operating Procedures released before the meet stated that athletes have to take care of their own accommodation and food. With the change in venue at the last minute, many athletes who had made arrangements for travel and stay in Tamil Nadu incurred significant financial losses. While the PCI did provide food and accommodation in the end, which is outside of its official mandate, not everyone received the benefits.

The 2021 event was but an extreme scenario of regular events.

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“Everything is delayed,” says Karam Jyoti, a para-athlete. “The whole process for Nationals starts late. So it gets complicated because sometimes even the Government funds don’t get cleared on time. Nothing happened in 2019 or 2020. Did the PCI not have time to plan one event in three years properly? You lead when you have solutions, we all have problems.”

"Despite the lack of everything, we get medals (at international level). The mentality has to change, there are personal grudges, factions and inequality. Everyone is hungry for power but do they care about athletes?" another athlete adds.

The story about the athletes make for somber reading. Once they scale the summit, there are options and help — 27 of the 96 names in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) are para-athletes, a scheme designed by the ministry to provide assistance to top athletes who can win Olympic medals. There are also organisations like the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) — which is a not for profit body - and others who help out athletes.

"There is not much help until you reach the international arena. We have to go to international meets at our own expense and once we perform, then they support us. Sponsors want glory and support people already in the international arena," says Sharath Gayakwad, India’s first swimmer to qualify for the Paralympics, a feat he achieved in 2012.

But what of those who are yet to reach that level?

Grassroots talent

"There is a lot of talent at grassroots level where if they get good support they can do really well. Facilities do not cater to the needs of para-athletes. We need to tackle these situations to perform well," says Gayakwad.

The state federations too are not up to the task.

"These state federations just pick some athletes and send them to the nationals, just to say they did something. It happens because there is no professionalism," complained an athlete.

“The grassroots challenge starts with state associations, that’s where things go bad. Athletes don’t get proper information about events or even their own categories. So moving up is harder. The athletes send information to each other through WhatsApp, there is no official communication,” says Karam.

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Being differently-abled, means the requirements of these athletes are specific. Coaching needs to match their requirements in both knowledge and execution. There are specific equipment, like wheelchairs, that are needed. For a middle-income family, to meet these needs is a tough task. There is always the question of training facilities and if there is one, whether it’s para-athlete friendly.

“Lack of awareness and disable friendly, especially for wheelchair and blind athletes, infrastructure is a major issue. Like ramps and information in sign language,” says Ekta Bhyan, as Asian Games gold medallist.

Ekta was already working as an employment officer in Haryana when she started so for her financially was much easier. “That’s not the case for every athlete, especially in rural areas,” she says. “Attitudinal barriers are also there, especially for female para-athletes. The attitude is we are not expected to compete.”

Accessibility

Sports facilities not being accessible to para sportspersons is nothing new, with even some centres of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) falling short in this respect.

And that is what Pradeep Raj, a former international para-athlete and Founder General Secretary of Para Sports Foundation, is fighting to set right.

"We have been working towards this and trying to raise awareness — Stadiums, hotels and hostel accessibility (for para-athletes). Situation for women with disabilities is very critical. Even things like accessibility to the toilets. We keep taking this to SAI and the ministry to bring it to their notice," says Raj.

The situation is getting better, even if it is at a snail's pace. The urban athletes have it a lot easier than their rural counterparts who often struggle for access to facilities to make it to the top.

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“Are district stadiums accessible for athletes who can't have access to urban cities like Bengaluru or New Delhi?,” Raj asks.

Given the challenges para sportspersons face, India’s performance at the international area has been commendable. The last Rio Olympics saw India clinch four medals, equalling their richest haul since 1984. There is a strong sense within multiple athletes that such international success is in spite of the PCI.

As it stands there are many obstacles — accessibility, lack of facilities, reduced reach of the sport and inadequate coaching.

But perhaps the biggest stumbling block is the lack of awareness of the sport, both from the athletes and the public. And this has led to administrative redundancies time and again.