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Apathy robs special medal shine-Pheroze L Vincent

A gold medal fetches Rs 51,000 in Haryana and Rs 7,000 in Delhi. In Jharkhand and Bihar, it does not even fetch a return train ticket.

Sandeep Oraon of Sangrampur, Ranchi, and Raj Kumar Sharma of Barharia, Siwan, struck gold for Delhi in the Para Athletics National Championship 2012 in Bangalore, which concluded on March 28, but said they would have felt more honoured to represent their home states had the governments been compassionate enough.

Seventeen-year-old Sandeep, who is visually challenged, won gold in long jump and bronze in javelin throw. Two years older and a tad luckier, partially blind Raj Kumar won the yellow metal both for javelin and shot-put, and ranked third in the discus event. The Delhi squad of eight came second in the championship after Haryana.

“Haryana’s athletes have better facilities. They said they would get Rs 51,000 and desi ghee from their government if they go home with a medal. We will get Rs 7,000 because we are playing for Delhi. But our friends from Bihar and Jharkhand… they had to pay for their own rail tickets,” Raj Kumar, who took his senior secondary examination this year, said.

In Bangalore, the Delhi squad toured the markets and the famous Lal Bagh. “My coaches and partially blind friends told me everything about colourful clothes and decorated shop windows. The dosas here are so tasty, much better than Delhi,” beamed Sandeep.

The botanical garden also left him overwhelmed. “So many flowers… so many fragrances… I have never smelt them before. Raj (Raj Kumar) plucked a tamarind for me. It was terrific,” he added.

The taste of victory and the olfactory delights of Bangalore perhaps more than compensated for the train they missed back home. The team later returned on wait-listed tickets, bought by the Delhi government, negotiating for space with co-passengers and sleeping on the floor between berths.

“We are sportsmen. We take it in our stride. But our states don’t treat us like sportsmen. We work hard too,” said Raj Kumar. “It is our dream and it will be our biggest honour to win medals for our states. Everyone in my village will be so happy. They will respect my family. But I had to come to Delhi as the blind school in Harmu (Ranchi) offers only till Class VIII,” said Sandeep.

Last year, The Telegraph had reported about Khunti boy Ranthu Munda (17), a visually challenged cricketer from Institution for the Blind at Lajpat Nagar, Delhi. Sandeep and Raj Kumar are from the same school. Like Munda, they too studied at Harmu’s Rashtriya Netraheen Madhya Vidyalaya.

Sandeep left in 2007. “I wanted to get a degree and a job. The Delhi school has audio books and trains us on computers. My family and friends rustled up funds to send me to Delhi,” said the teen, whose parents are marginal farmers.

Ranthu and Raj Kumar are finishing school this year. Sandeep, also a medium-pace bowler and a middle-order batsman, is taking his place on the team. “I will miss them. They coached me. Maybe someday I will go back and play for Jharkhand. If I play well, maybe I will be offered a job like Ranthu bhaiya,” Sandeep said.

Ranthu, who was offered a job after the news report, said he had not heard from government officials since. “I hope they will keep my berth till I finish my degree. There’s no scholarship for us after school from the Delhi government, but I can work and borrow and live with friends to get a degree,” he said.

Raj Kumar values academics as much. “The villagers thought my parents were fools. Neither the block development officer nor our mukhiya apprised them of schemes to support me. ‘What will a blind boy do in Delhi?’ they said. But after I went home with medals last time and my name appeared in the paper, everyone came to my house. I am now more educated than them. I will get a job as a computer teacher. But sports will always be my first love,” he said.