To be a sportsperson in our country is not the easiest. There aren’t enough facilities and most of our sportspeople are now roadside vendors. Now imagine being a para athlete in a country that isn’t for the specially abled. If that isn’t bad enough, read this beauty. 
Here is a checklist that you will need to meet to be a paarathlete in india. A)there is a registration fee that you need to pay to participate in the qualifiers. The national dept stipulates it at ₹1000, the karnataka state demands ₹3000.
B) to add insult to injury, the Athletes have to pay a penalty of ₹10,000 to the national para athletics, if they fail to meet the minimum qualifying standards. Every event has a set standard that a sports person has to meet. But it is unheard of to penalise them if they don’t!
C) who pays the penalty? The national dept stipulates that the State pays the penalty. However, in this athlete’s letter, the penalty is the athlete’s responsibility. Anonymous sources told me, they would not be allowed to participate in the future if the dues aren’t cleared!
D) An unverified pdf format from #andhrapradesh takes it a notch further. The draft undertaking was given to the athletes to sign before their participation that they would pay the fine from their pocket and that the state will not be responsible for it!
If this isn’t cruel, I don’t know what is. If a cricketer scores a duck, will the @BCCI ask them to return their match fee? @nkaggere @Rohini_Swamy @dhanyarajendran @path2shah @AyeshaKhanumAK @toisports @ArunDev1 @prajavani @scroll_in @ThePrintIndia
We do nothing to encourage or help their quality of life. The specially abled people fight a very uphill battle to live a life of dignity. Sports becomes a way for them to continue to keep their morale high. Why would you take it away from them. Can somebody tag #deepamallik?
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