PARALYMPICS: QUENTESSENTIAL EXAMPLE OF A POTENTIAL ASSET

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By Ruchiraa Verma, Kalindi College

The history of the Paralympic Games begins in 1948. The Second World War had left millions dead, starving, mourning or injured. In a hospital in Stoke Mandeville, a village in England, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann organized a sporting event for faster rehabilitation of his Royal Air Force patients suffering from spinal cord injuries. Since then, the event has grown into an international sports competition for people with various disabilities, today known as the Paralympic Games. 

As the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Games come to a close, Indian athletes have bagged a total of 19 medals – 5 gold, 8 silver, and 6 bronze – finishing at 24th place. With medals, these champions have earned not only the respect of the masses but millions of rupees and government jobs as rewards.

For example, 

  • Gujarat government announced a reward of ₹3 crores for silver medalist Bhavina Patel for her achievement in table tennis.

  • Haryana government announced a reward of ₹6 crores to Manish Narwal for his golden win in men’s 50 meter pistol competition and ₹4 crores to Singhraj Adana for finishing with a silver medal in the same event; Archer Harvinder Singh will be receiving ₹2.5 crores for his bronze medal. 

  • Tamil Nadu government announced a reward of ₹2 crores for silver medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu in men’s high jump.

Apart from cash prizes, Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adana have also been offered government jobs. Avani Lekhara has been awarded a cash prize of ₹3 crores for her dual win – gold in women’s 10 meter air rifle shooting and bronze in women’s 50 meter air rifle shooting – she has also been appointed to the post of Assistant Conservator of Forest in Rajasthan’s state forest department, as have two more players, Devendra Jhajharia and Sundar Singh Gurjar (silver medal and bronze medal in men’s javelin throw, respectively). Additionally, she has also been nominated as the Ambassador of the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” campaign by the Rajasthan government.  

Image Source: globalonlinemony.com

Employment is often cited as the biggest economic impact of such grand events. In 2010, almost two years before the London Paralympics in 2012, the U.K. 's television network Channel 4, went on a nation-wide search to recruit disabled presenters and reporters for the games. Over the course of two years it spent £600,000 to train them and committed another £250,000 to support their careers after the games.

Other economic opportunities include tourism, construction, advertisement and hospitality. However, most of these avenues have been limited in the Tokyo 2020 edition of the Olympics and Paralympic Games due to the ongoing Corona-Virus pandemic. 

The making of an Olympic athlete is a labor lasting decades. The impact of the Olympic Games starts much before the due date. And the effort is global. The training of a world class athlete requires infrastructure, equipment, people, and lakhs in funding. For a Para-athlete, the requirements extend even further – medical facilities and supportive technology, for instance. However, the most important factor is the willingness of the people to commit to sports as a career. 

Suggestions to encourage sports as a career in India:

  • Commercialization: The fanfare attached with cricket in India rakes in billions of rupees in the economy through sponsorships, viewership, media coverage and merchandise. The Indian Premier League (IPL) is no less than a festival in India. Commercialization of more sports and games will only invite more prosperity for the economy. 

  • Scholarships: Promoting sports scholarships in higher education has two-fold effects – motivating sports enrollment at school level and increased enrollment in higher education from economically weaker sections of the society. 

  • Representation: A recent partnership between Thumbs Up and Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympic Games resulted in advertisements on television and social media campaigns honoring the hard work of the athletes. A visual representation of future possibilities is very important in encouraging and motivating young minds. For example, the stardom of cricket and football players often attracts people to these sports. 

Sources: 
Hindustan Times
Olympics.com 
Paralympics.org 
Paris2024.org
Channel4.com
Wikipedia

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