We’ve made place in the hearts of people: Paralympian Deepa Malik

Definitely things have changed fundamentally, that’s why this change has happened. The Rio Paralympics brought in a revolution which was taken forward. The medals haul in 2016 proved that there is a lot of potential in para sports. The attention of the government shifted to para sports, accepting it as mainstream sports. Para sports were included in all the mainstream-funding programmes of the government and the awareness spread. The media took notice, so did social media. The working of the federation became more streamlined. There was a deliberate attempt to conduct proper selection trials and introduce sciences in sports. Talent pool was identified and nurtured, aiming at future events such as the Tokyo Paralympics. would also grant it to the coaches, along with the administration’s support. The coaches have understood after Rio that medals can be won when sports sciences are introduced. Till 2016, it was only myself, Devendra Jhajharia, Maria Lyle and Varun Singh Bhati who had introduced sport sciences into our training programmes. As a president, I ensured quick and easy communication, understanding the needs of a particular request of an athlete and presenting it before the Olympics committee for sanction.

Under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme, more than ₹17 crore were sanctioned to the athletes for preparation. The State governments too came forward and funded preparations. We also received funding from private companies under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme, but they came in a bit late. Government funding comes after the team is formed and the talent has been identified, but these athletes need to be continuously trained. We do need more funding, there is no doubt about it.

The way India has celebrated para sports, it definitely marks a new era for the Games. It jumped started with Rio and now with Tokyo, there is not just more awareness but we have made place in the hearts of the people. People have begun to follow the Games. Now, they make enquiries on social media as to when they are going to see the para-athletes in action again. As a president, I made deliberate efforts to revive our social media handles. We were applauded by the International Paralympic Committee for the maximum engagement from India. We got 2.6 million-plus likes and engagements as our athletes won the medals.

I think the shift has taken place. We are feeling welcomed everywhere. If we see the welcome ceremonies that have been given by the government to the para-athletes and able-bodied sportspersons, there has been no difference at all. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about para-athletes in “Mann Ki Baat” and tweeted about them. The media has learnt to report the categories of the Games, the events and talk about particular disability category. So, the interest has been generated but infrastructure remains a challenge. Suppose we want to hold wheelchair nationals for basketball, then I need 300 rooms with wheelchair accessibility, end-to-end accessible transport and wheelchair-accessible bathrooms. We can probably raise funds to hire them, but hire them how? A five-star hotel doesn’t have more than five wheelchair-accessible rooms.

It is happening slowly. I have also been pushing it individually. My crusade is that why we (para-athletes) are used only for inspirational or CSR activities; we should also be involved in mainstream promotions. But for this to happen the responsibility also lies with individual athletes. They need to augment their digital media presence, present themselves in a way that they are capable of doing it. I have got beauty product endorsements, became the voice of artificial intelligence navigation system of a car launched recently. These are all mainstream.

The ‘Palat De’ ad campaign by Thumbs Up was shot for both able-bodied and para-athletes. It was a mainstream television commercial done as an awareness programme, even before we won any medals.

The struggle of a para sportsperson starts with identifying the training areas and the coaches. Not many coaches have the expertise to coach para-athletes. We have just a handful of coaches, we need more of them. We need accessible transportation and playing arenas. There may be a lot of talent out there and a lot of will, but little infrastructure.

The short-term measure is definitely to nurture our pool of excellence. We cannot, due to COVID-19 or lack of funding or lack of training programmes, in any way lose the current pool of talent. For long-term, a lot of work needs to be done. As an apex body, we can work to a certain extent but the State bodies need to take more responsibility, pushing the policies at State-level, making district sports offices and sports arenas accessible to para sportspersons. We need to include para sports in all sports events at school, college and university levels. Every coach should specialise in para sports. A basketball coach should know about para basketball. A taekwondo coach should know about para taekwondo. It should be a part of their coaching programme.

If we don’t face the COVID-19 problems and get regular participation at international levels, I think the 19 medals can be easily converted into 30-odd with more gold medal-winning performances.