Headlines
'Probe para-athletes mistreatment at Ghaziabad national meet'
Kolkata, March 27
The Civilian Welfare
Foundation (CWF), a body working for the rights of disabled people and
para-athletes, on Friday pleaded to the West Bengal government and the
country's sports bodies to probe the "harsh treatment" meted out to
paralympic athletes at the three-day national meet in Uttar Pradesh.
The
March 20-22 event organised by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI)
in Ghaziabad as a qualifier for the Para Open Games starting in May saw
the participation of 700 athletes who were selected through state
trials.
CWF's patron-in-chief Gautam Sarkar alleged that the
participants were denied basic amenities like hygienic boarding,
sanitary facilities adequate food and even clean drinking water.
Somnath Malo, a member of the Bengal team present at the media meet, related the ordeal faced by the athletes.
"We
reached the Ghaziabad station at around 2 a.m. A bus came and picked us
up at 11.30 a.m. We were given 'puri sabji' for breakfast and then
there were no meals in between... for dinner we used to have stale rice
or the puri-sabji platter again. How can you have such food and compete
in games?" said Malo.
The CWF demanded a complete structural
makeover of the present PCI executive committee and demanded that
recently retired paralympic sportsmen and sports science practitioners
should run it.
Sarkar said the Sports Authority Of India should
take charge and make itself accountable for all lapses to clamp down on
corruption and ensure welfare of the para-athletes.
"There were
no doctors to treat the athletes who were having stomach problems after
eating such horrible food. Even prisoners are provided better food and
facilities," said Sarkar.
The resentment was not only limited to the meet, but also to the denial of recognition to para-athletes.
"We
have also brought in medals for our country and state, then why don't
we get the same recognition as the general athletes? There are no jobs
for us, no basic facilities to train, I want to know why this
discrimination?" asked Rubiya Chatterjee, a shot-putter and
discuss-thrower of Bengal.
"Under these awful conditions the
national para-games should not be held, we have prepared a charter of
demands which will be handed over to the committee if they accept to
abide by the terms and conditions, only then will we send our athletes,"
said Shampa Sengupta, a disability and gender rights activist.