Mohammad Shams Aalam Shaikh and Archana Kumari wait for their turn to be felicitated at the Khel Samman Samaroh in Patna on Monday. Picture by Jai Prakash http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160830/jsp/bihar/story_105139.jsp#.V8UerRYkpYc Mohammad Shams Aalam Shaikh and Archana Kumari could not even get on the stage at the Sports Day event organised by the state government on Monday - because there was no ramp the differently abled sportspersons could use to get on the dais.
Shaikh, a differently abled swimmer who recently represented India and won a bronze medal at the 2016 Speedo Can Am Para-swimming Championships in Canada, said: "I have been waiting for nearly more than two hours but there is no one from the organising committee to even offer us a glass of water." Every year on the occasion of National Sports Day, which coincides with the birth anniversary of hockey legend Dhyan Chand, the Bihar government organises Khel Samman Samaroh. As many as 196 such special sportspersons had congregated at the programme venue on Monday, Patliputra Sports Complex, where they were to be felicitated by art, culture and youth affairs minister Shiv Chandra Ram. In addition, 150 players in the general category, and nine sportspersons who have represented Bihar at international events and four coaches were felicitated on the occasion. Shaikh, who has won several swimming medals at different tournaments, pointed out that several national as well as international sports events are held at Patliputra Sports Complex but the stadium has no ramp for differently abled athletes, and neither had the government bothered to construct one for the stage. The swimmer also fumed over the lack of monetary assistance from the Bihar government to sportspersons in the state, including physically challenged ones. Differently abled players protest outside the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna on Monday. Picture by Jai Prakash According to Shaikh and Archana, who is a special athlete, the maximum monetary assistance the Bihar government provides to a physically challenged sportsperson is Rs 7,000 - if s/he performs exceptionally well at national or international events; rest of the sportspersons get between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000. Both Shaikh and Archana claimed that other states provide better monetary assistance to differently able sportspersons. States such as Haryana, Punjab and even Gujarat which few years back didn't give much attention to sports have increased the monetary assistance to sportsperson both in the general and specially challenged category. Kanchan Kumar, another specially challenged sportsperson, said: "The Haryana government gives Rs 3 lakh to specially challenged sportspersons winning gold medal in national as well as international events. Similarly, the Gujarat government too has increased financial assistance for specially challenged sportspersons." The differently abled sportspersons even staged a protest on Monday during the event at Patliputra Sports Complex outlining their demands from the state. Asked about their demands, minister Shiv Chandra Ram said: "The sportspersons in the state are getting financial assistance based on rules and regulations framed in 2007. The state government will revise the rules so that a larger number of sportspersons can be accommodated and even monetary assistance for such players will go up." Maybe the government could also budget for some sensitivity. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
