The success of our Paralympians in Rio has not only showcased our apathy for them but also exposed the glaring discrimination that they go through every single day.
The name Mariyappan Thangavelu would not ring alarm bells in any of our minds. He isn’t a flamboyant cricketer who has run-chases for dinner. He isn’t an actor from the south of India where actors generally acquire the status of a demi-god. He neither is a superstar whose bachelorhood is the subject of many gossip newspapers nor is he the highest tax payer of the country. But in stature, he has risen above every cricketer, superstar or the taxpayer of this country.
In the early hours of September 10, Mariyappan Thangavelu scripted history when he jumped to a gold medal in the T-42 High Jump category at the Paralympics in Rio. He, along with Varun Singh Bhati who won the bronze medal brought joy to a handful of Indians who were aware that the games were in progress. As the day progressed, the news spread and accolades started to pour in for the 21-year old, who’s right leg was crushed under the wheels of a state transport bus when he was five. But that is where it all ended. The Tamil Nadu government announced an award worth Rs 2 crore and he will also be entitled to a Rs 75 lakh reward from the sports ministry under their quota for the gold medal winners at Rio.
But how long will these rewards last? Thangavelu’s mother Saroja sells vegetables for a living. His application for a job is still lying among many such applications that usually gather dust at government offices. But the issue here is not about the rewards. The Paralympics are the best example of how the world has only come down to revenues, profits and TRPs.
The games have not received an official broadcaster in India. The lack of sponsors can be attributed as a reason. Sponsors wouldn’t be willing to spend a fortune on disabled athletes. It was twitter that made people like us know of who Thangavelu is.
The Paralympics are an ideal example of how every athlete has overcome adversity and every possible odd against them to get to where they are. Every athlete is a story in itself. Apart from Thangavelu, India also won silver at the games via Deepa Malik, paralysed waist-down, who won silver in the Woman’s short-put. Rewards aside, there has hardly been any media coverage for either of these stars. The media, who had thronged to PV Sindhu’s house when she took to court to play her badminton final, was suddenly missing when these heroes went on to win laurels for our country. This is not meant to take away any credit from Sindhu’s hard work, but the discrimination is simply appalling.
Another success story is that of the Javelin Thrower Devendra Jhajharia who perhaps is the only Indian to win two individual Olympic gold medals. His heroics in Athens in 2004 won him a passing mention and it is only now, 12 years later that the world has taken notice of this hero from Rajasthan who lost one of his hand when he was just eight. Setting a world record to win a gold medal is amazing, beating your own record to win another gold is beyond superlatives. Jhajharia has done both of these. Somewhere, somehow, the mentions are never as consistent as that of a Kohli or a Sindhu or a Leander Paes.
This brings me to the question, Who is the one with the disability? Is it us, who with their fully functional bodies are setting public property on fire over which state does a river water belong to and lynch people to death as they consume beef? Or are these heroes who with their ‘physical disability’ are ensuring that the tricolor flies high across the world whether or not it files high in its own country? The answer is obvious but as always, we would love living behind our cosy curtains of denial.
The success story of Thangavelu, Malik and Bhati is inspiring, humbling as well as a slap on the faces of all those who believe that picking up a gun only because the family is in distress is the solution to their troubles. While we bow our heads to them, let’s have them as a source to motivate ourselves and not think that our world has ended if we run out of our mobile data-pack.
Watch: Thangavelu’s gold medal winning jump.
hormazfatakia 
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