The universe moves in mysterious ways. Professional sport, normally the preserve of perfect bodies, has emerged as a viable career option for persons with disability. What could be a more glorious irony than that? Those born with a congenital deformity, or those who lose a limb in an accident, can become Olympians if they put in the effort and the system supports them.

India has steadily grown in Para sport. War hero Muralikant Petkar, with a bullet lodged in his spine, won the country’s first ever Paralympic gold when he stood first in 50m swimming at the 1972 Heidelberg Games. He was India’s only medallist in that edition. Cut to the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, where India won 19 medals, five of them gold. In all, India has won 31 medals in Paralympics.

When it comes to support structures, Go Sports Foundation (GSF), a non-profit set up in 2008, has been among the leading mentors and enablers for Indian athletes, able-bodied or Para. It has worked with several Paralympic medallists. These include javelin world record holder and Tokyo Games gold medallist Sumit Antil and Tokyo shooting gold (10m air rifle standing) and bronze (50m air rifle standing) medallist Avani Lekhara.

In this interview, Deepthi Bopaiah, CEO, GSF, speaks about the wide-ranging factors responsible for the growth of Indian Para sport – right from the CSR mandate laid down by the Companies Act to an appearance of Para athletes on the Kapil Sharma show. But she also emphasises that a lot still needs to be done on matters such as infrastructure.

One of GSF’s goals is raising awareness of disability conditions in our society, and changing perceptions towards di?erently-abled individuals. To what extent have these objectives been achieved?

They have been achieved to a very large extent. Our early days were quite a struggle, when we had to go to individuals and then convince them to give money, especially for Para athletes. But then two things happened. The CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Mandate in India (2014) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015). Disability and partnerships was a big piece of the UN SDGs. Based on that our Ministry of Corporate Affairs created something called Schedule VII. In that, training for the Olympics, Paralympics and in rural sports became one of the categories where corporations could donate funds as part of nation building.

Earlier there was a pity story around Para athletes. Someone would give them a wheelchair or a prosthetic. No one saw them as athletes who could win on the world stage. That has changed now. Today Para athletes are getting equal prize money and recognition from the government as able-bodied athletes. Lots of individuals and organisations are coming forward to help. The proof of the success of the movement is that support is not coming from a sympathy angle. It is coming from a performance angle.

Who are some of these individuals and organisations?

After Rio, Sachin Tendulkar reached out and said he wanted to felicitate all the medalists. So we also included winners from earlier Paralympics, including Muralikant Petkar. Sachin raised money through his network and the Para athletes were awarded Rs 15 lakhs. A lot of credit has to go to IndusInd Bank too. They were the first company who as part of their CSR worked with us and they continue to do it till today. Sony Pictures had the rights for the Paralympics and that led to athletes appearing on the Kapil Sharma show. That really gave their profile a boost because people from tier 2, tier 3 cities saw that a person with disability can take up a sport and create an identity for themselves.

How significant of a development is the inclusion of Para athletes in the government’s TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme), which gives financial assistance to medal prospects?

I’m a member of the MOC (Mission Olympic Cell) of the TOPs team. We have been giving support to all the Para athletes. It’s a good combo today because the government is there, SAI (Sports Authority of India) is there, federations are slowly understanding that you all need to work together. Today you are at least attempting to keep the athlete at the centre of your decisions. Earlier, the athlete’s needs were always ignored.

What are the areas that need to be worked on?

During the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics there was an interesting campaign called ‘We the 15’, made by the WHO (World Health Organisation) and the International Paralympic Committee. According to their data 15 per cent of the world’s population are people with disabilities, which is not a small number at all. We have a huge way to go in terms of accessibility to places and services for persons with disability.

Take the case of ramps in buildings. People think if there are ramps you are changing the entire architecture of the place, but you are not. Besides, able bodied people can also walk on ramps. These are basics which have to be ingrained in our thinking while designing buildings or hotels. We certainly can do with more wheelchair friendly hotel rooms, for one.