Cricketers are a pampered lot in the country. While other sporting activities usually get the short shrift, the treatment meted to participants of the National Para Athletic Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru, recently, marked a new low. Over 1,000 athletes who reached the city at short notice as the event was shifted from Chennai to Bengaluru at the last moment, had to bear the brunt of total lack of planning and sub-standard facilities. Even basic requirements like proper wheelchair access were missing, while in the absence of floodlights, measurements for some events had to be taken using mobile phone torches or car headlights. Ironically, this was a qualification event for selection of participants for the Tokyo Paralympics. Given such official callousness and apathy, it is no surprise that our sportspersons perform poorly at international events.
While people with disabilities require special attention, it is disgusting that they are treated as sub-humans by sports authorities. The mismanagement by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) is nothing short of criminal as it has become a norm over the years to treat para-athletes with contempt. A similar situation had arisen during the 2015 national event at Ghaziabad when there was a national outrage following complaints from athletes that they were deprived of basic facilities and were accommodated in unfurnished rooms with dirty toilets without water. During the 18th national championships in 2018 at Panchkula, a para-athlete Suvarna Raj, had sent an emotional appeal to the Prime Minister about the insult meted by the organisers to participants with disabilities. One of the most heart-wrenching complaints is that the participants are unable to use the toilet as they are not wheelchair accessible. Each time the sports minister concerned and the PCI promise to take corrective steps, but at the next event it is a repeat of same old story.
The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act of 1995 mandates that all public places must provide access to the physically challenged, but this has remained only on paper. While it is a shame that a prestigious sporting arena like the Kanteerava stadium is not disabled-friendly for which the Karnataka government should take the rap, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rejiju should ensure that specially-abled sportspersons are treated with dignity. The government would also do well to construct at least one stadium in the country which fully and exclusively caters to the needs of those with disabilities. But first, the PCI should pull up its socks and shed its monumental inefficiency.