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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Waiting for a job, differently-abled athlete thinks ‘suicide is a way out’ -Shoumojit Banerjee

Waiting for a job, differently-abled athlete thinks ‘suicide is a way out’ -Shoumojit Banerjee

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published Published on Sep 7, 2014   modified Modified on Sep 7, 2014
-The Hindu

Pune: An impotent anxiety grips Indira Gaikwad as she hobbles on her crutches in her matchbox house in the mean tenements in the city's Rasta Peth area.

A former State-level disabled sports champion, Indira, at 43, is fast approaching the deadline (of 45 years) for differently abled sportspersons aspiring to a government job.

Crushed by the financial burdens of looking after her 75-year-old ailing mother, the post-dated promises of goodwill by the State's satraps have pushed her into selling her painstakingly earned medals as scrap - an act which she considers nothing less than sacrilegious.

"There is no other recourse as my mother's medical bills have mounted to more than Rs. 500 last month. The doctor, while sympathetic, is not inclined to discount," she remarks.

"The government provides jobs to normal sportsmen. Why cannot it give me, a differently-abled woman, a small position? And I'm not even asking for the Class 1 and Class 2 posts," she states while displaying her 35-odd medals and awards bagged during the last two decades.

Struck by polio when she was 11 months old, Indira began actively participating in sports for the differently- abled in 1990, training by herself in the city's Nehru Stadium.

"My father, who worked in the Raja Bahadur mills, was claimed by cancer and had passed away. Since then, I've been fending for myself and my mother," says Indira, who bagged the Shiv Chhatrapati award in 1994 in the differently-abled category - Maharashtra's highest and most prestigious sports honour.

She has represented the State and the country in power-lifting, cycle-racing, shot put, discus and javelin throwing, bagging eight gold medals at various events in the process.

In December 2013, following local television reports highlighting her wretched condition, the State government was finally forced to pick up their ears and listen. Hasty assurances were doled out by Minister for Sports & Youth Welfare, Padmakar Valvi.

A cheque of Rs. 1 lakh was made out to Indira for "aiding in her sports activities", namely diet and training.

"I am not interested in a one-time payment and accordingly told Mr. Valvi that I want a job. He urged me to accept it and promised me a job. So far, he has only been promising," she says.

Indira and her mother, Shonubai, live on a combined income Rs. 800 a month given to them by the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Anudan Yojana.

To make ends meet, she worked as a supervisor in textile factories, chocolate companies, only to be turned out on account of her disability.

"I had taken up stitching recently. But I eventually sold the sewing machine. May be suicide is a way out," she says, her stoicism finally giving way to despair.

"A cricketer who merely manages to wriggle a berth in the T20 matches earns in lakhs without scoring anything. The gulf between them and a humble, though no less talented player like Indira is almost obscene" says Shyam Akolkar, a bank officer, who has been coaching Ms. Gaikwad free of cost since 2004.


The Hindu, 6 September, 2014, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/maharashtras-top-differentlyabled-athlete-sells-medals-to-cover-mothers-medical-bills/article6386465.ece?homepage=true


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