http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31812&articlexml=Bengal-para-athletes-reveal-their-nightmare-28032015021039 Kolkata TIMES NEWS NETWORK No Separate Toilets For Male And Female Participants In Ghaziabad
Not many in Bengal would have heard of Rubia Chatterjee. A para-athlete from Halisahar, she won three gold medals in the recently-held National championships in Ghaziabad. Back home, Rubia should have been basking in the glory of her odd-defying exploits in the March 20-22 meet. Instead, what the athlete with a disability in her right leg, below the knee, as well as other medal-winners from the state are talking about is a harrowing tale of "inhuman, unthinkable experience." Ever since TOI threw light on the shabby facilities provided to participants, more details have been emerging of the ill-treatment meted out to the athletes at the Ghaziabad championship -organized under the umbrella of Paralympic Committee of India (PCI). "We were put up in a partially constructed building. There were no proper beds for us and we had to sleep on floors. More shockingly , we had to stay awake on the first night because the beds got wet and floors flooded following leakage in the pipeline. There was nobody to help us till the pipeline got repaired the next afternoon," Rubia said on Friday . Lila Saha, who won gold in discus throw, had another horrific story to narrate. "There were no separate toilets for males and females. Also, the doors in the rooms allotted to female athletes didn't have latches and male athletes from some other states often entered our rooms, taking us by surprise. We have been debating about women's safety in recent times. What about this?" asked Lila, who lost her left limb when she was just nine. Somnath Malo, an Asian gold medallist in a wheelchair event, was shocked to see what was on offer.The athletes on wheelchair were put up on the first floor, instead of the ground floor, and there was no passage for them to move up. "We used to crawl across the stairs to get into our room while other athletes offered help in carrying the wheelchairs," said Malo, who won the 100m race on crutch in Ghaziabad. Bengal sent an 11-member squad to the meet and returned with eight gold and one silver medal. The top two in each event have qualified for the International Para Open Games, to be held in New Delhi from May 2-9. Bhaskar Mukherjee, a former international para-athlete and now Bengal Paralympic Association secretary, had accompanied the athletes to Ghaziabad. He felt the choice of the venue for such a meet left a lot to be desired. "It's a harrowing journey since the beginning. We reached Ghaziabad via train at around 2 am (on March 19). The organizers were supposed to send a car early in the morning, but it came only at midday. What was allotted for us as breakfast was served as lunch. The dish included oily puri, simple dal and boiled potatoes with spices sprinkled on them. On eaten that, most of our athletes fell sick and complained of stomach upset.There was no doctor around and I had to move out to buy medicines for them," Mukherjee told TOI. No wonder, Saheb Hussain -a triple gold-winner in Ghaziabad -is trying to erase the experience from memory. "I went to Ghaziabad with a dream. Despite winning three gold medals, I still feel like crying the moment I think about what we had to go through there," maintained the runner with 75 per cent blindness. The Civilian Welfare Foundation, an NGO, has come forward to help these para-athletes. Demanding complete revamp of the PCI and direct vigilance from Sports Authority of India at such meets in the future, the CWF plans to raise its voice across the country against the plight of para-athletes. -- 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/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in 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..
