In the Union Budget 2021, the Centre allotted the sports ministry Rs 2596.14 crore, which is almost Rs 230.78 crore less than the previous year’s allocation.
In Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s two-hour speech, the disability sector found no mention. The Wire has reported on how the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) witnessed a reduced overall budgetary allocation from Rs 1325.39 crore in 2020 to 1171.77 crore this year.
This leaves players who represent the country in international wheelchair tennis tournaments with little to no support from the Central government.
Sitharaman had said this year’s budget rests on six pillars, one of which is inclusive development for aspirational India. However, many such players have had it with a system that continues to disappoint them.
Several International Tennis Federation (ITF)-ranked wheelchair tennis players told The Wire that they were made to run from pillar to post amid the lockdown to get a refund for a fee of Rs 30,000 which they had paid to participate in the now cancelled International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation tournament in Thailand.
As all sporting events across the globe came to a halt, the IWAS World Games 2020 tournament which was expected to be conducted in March was postponed to December. In October, it was cancelled altogether.
Cancellation of events and especially the IWAS tournament has affected several players across sports, with some even saying this could be their last chance to participate and represent their country. However, for wheelchair tennis players who were about to compete in Thailand for the first time, what took a toll (more than the missed opportunity) was the miscommunication and lack of responsibility displayed by the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) and the All India Tennis Association (AITA).
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“We paid the participation fees to the PCI but we never received any communication from their side regarding the cancellation of the tournament. And, when we asked for a refund, our requests were ignored,” Nalina Kumari, an AITA and ITF-ranked wheelchair tennis player, told The Wire.
Nalina Kumari. Photo: By arrangement.
Kumari’s partner in doubles games, Shilpa K.P. said that help arrived only when Astha Foundation’s Sunil Jain took up their cause with the PCI. Jain is founder of the Foundation and Chief Enabler of Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour, that conducts AITA-ranked wheelchair tennis tournaments across the country.
“Even now, from the actual amount of Rs 30,000 we paid per person, we have only received Rs 26,000 and are yet to hear from the PCI as to why Rs 4,000 was cut. The organisers have informed us that they refunded the entire amount to their Indian counterparts,” said Shilpa.
Nalina and Shilpa top the AITA rankings for wheelchair tennis women’s doubles. In singles, they’re ranked 2 and 3 respectively.
‘No authority’
Jain said the AITA was encumbered by its lack of responsibility. “The issue is not about giving the refund late, it is about having no sense of responsibility towards players who represent our country.”
“Throughout the lockdown, there was radio silence from AITA and PCI regarding the tournament and even later when I started contacting them via emails, the PCI asked me to come via AITA, an organisation that has never responded to a single email of mine,” Jain added.
Jain had to contact the organising committee of IWAS tournament directly to understand what the situation of refunds was. It was the organisers in Thailand who told him who the coordinator from India was, a fact that Jain said was “quite embarrassing.”
Shilpa K.P. Photo: By arrangement.
AITA general secretary Anil Dhupar told The Wire that Jain has no authority to ask the association any questions related to its functioning.
“I want to ask Sunil Jain, in what capacity does he ask such questions to AITA? He says the players have sent hundreds of mails to us, but I say his claims are false,” Dhupar said.
He also claimed PCI had no business collecting money but offered a strange rationalisation.
“For the IWAS event, players went to PCI and submitted money. Now, which organisation will say ‘no’ if money comes their way? The PCI knows AITA handles wheelchair tennis and that it is not certified to carry any of such procedures,” said Dhupar.
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‘Question of procedure’
Jain had told The Wire that Deepa Malik, who is a paralympian herself and now the president of PCI, had said that she had no idea about the issue when he contacted her.
However, when contacted by The Wire, Malik explained the situation in detail. She said that Jain is not the person to speak with the PCI on money matters.
Deepa Malik receives the Arjuna Award from President Pranab Mukherjee. Photo: Twitter
She said, “Six wheelchair tennis players, namely, Nalina Kumari, Shilpa KP, Prathamal Narayana Rao, Madhusudhan Hanuman Thappa, Anil Almeda and Gangadharappa paid the money to the PCI. Following this, we had ordered kits for the players. First, the delay happened due to the organisers informing us that they will use the same amount in December, the month to which the tournament was postponed. When they cancelled it in October, we received a refund but not the full amount.”
Malik said, “Unless the proof of transaction is not submitted by the players, the PCI is not authorised to make a refund. There was a lot of discrepancy in the way account numbers and online transactions were made, hence the second delay. There is also a factor of the change in dollar rate from the time of the first payment to the organisers.”
She said that Rs 4,000, which was deducted from the refund, was the cost of the kits which were ordered.
“They (kits) are ready in the PCI office. They’re labelled and sealed and once the players send us their addresses and proof of transactions we can courier the kits to them. However, five of the six players have already received their refunds.”
Malik also said that the PCI is the apex body in India that has the authority to conduct and send players to all International Paralympic Committee-conducted tournaments and all necessary communication was made from time to time with the wheelchair tennis federation.
‘No development’
While issues like this are usually ignored and thought to be part of the process, players also allege that even after having been internationally-ranked, they are yet to receive a professional wheelchair or funds for that from the Centre.
“There is no system in place. There has been no grassroot-level development in this sport. We never get any sponsors, nor do we get financial aid, special facilities or professional wheelchairs from the government. Every trip we’ve been to has been paid from our pockets first and later we have got a 20% refund,” said Kumari.
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Players are afraid of harming their careers and therefore do not speak up, said Kumari. No ideas are floated for better functioning either.
“Special reservations for people with disabilities is not enough. The government needs to make sure the funds allocated are duly used for betterment of players and the sport. They need to make sure there is no leakage in the process,” she said.
To this, AITA’s Dhupar said that the government does not provide wheelchairs, pay a player’s participation fee or reimburse for expenses until they are ranked in the top eight in the country.
PCI’s Malik also said that only the top eight are covered under the National Sports Development Fund.
‘We never get any sponsors, nor do we get financial aid, special facilities or professional wheelchairs from the government.’ Photo: By arrangement.
Online registration
Meanwhile, Jain via his foundation the Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tour appealed to the AITA to enable an online registration process for wheelchair tennis players.
Jain said, “These players approached us with mobility concerns. They are struggling to get the prints of documents and then go to the bank to get a demand draft made for in-person submissions to the AITA office.”
The repeated attempts by him and his colleagues to take the entire process online and the silence they have been met with is slap on the face of campaigners like him, feels Jain.
But Dhupar said, “AITA is not lacking in any way. The process for things might be a bit slow due to COVID-19 but they’re definitely in place. Every process takes time and things like online registration are taking place.”
Jain feels that wheelchair sports need more than monetary allocations. “The government is still burying the needs of persons with disabilities under the philosophy of good deeds, charity and help,” Jain said.
While the blame game occupies several rungs of political participants and activists, for those who depend on the sport and consider it their means to a livelihood, it is a derailment of dreams.