¡°How do you earn your living?¡±, Abhirupa Kar, one of the facilitators asked the mother of Aslima, a 13-year-old girl with lower limb disability. She replied we make bidi, a local cigarette. Interestingly, the night before the camp we heard that a local bidi maker earns Rs 110 per 1000 bidis! Such is the extent of cheap labour and yet these family dreams of making their child a footballer! Later Sanjay Das, our technical coach confirmed with much exuberance that Aslima has ample skills of becoming a footballer.?
CivilianWelfare
One of the persistent problems in Indian Paralympic sports is lack of systematic screening at the grass root level. Most of the disabled athletes are either self-motivated or they have connections in some sports body. Even last year in ¡®Khelo India¡¯ program, the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) refused to organise sports event for the grass-root level athletes. Instead they only had a national sports meet. West Bengal is already lagging far in promoting new talents in disability sports. Hence, we see only a handful of senior players participating in the events since the past 10 years. In a recent study by Civilian Welfare Foundation (CWF), it was seen there is only 42 national level athletes with disabilities in West Bengal with an average age of 29 years. In a bid to change this scenario, this non-profit organization working with disability sports since last 8 years initiated a unique project. The project primarily aims to build a coterie of athletes with disabilities through one particular sport which can be easily played. Football is one of the most popular and accessible sport in terms of infrastructural and training requirements. This 7-a-side mixed team will be one of a kind as it will cater athletes with different disabilities (except athletes with full visual impairment and wheel chair bound athletes) and gender in the same team providing an excellent breeding ground for inclusion. Moreover, the project aims to train a set of these athletes to represent India at Adapted Football International Tournament (TIFA 2020) in Portugal. Worth mentioning here, CWF has collaborated with Five Mad Men (5MM), a city sports bar which is continuously challenging the notion of normative sports by consistently organizing para-sports events and sensitization programs. They also support several athletes of Bengal by raising funds for them. The second screening of this project was held at Kaitha village, Birbhum. Around 50 participants with disabilities from different villages of Birbhum came for the camp out of which 20 boys and girls with 12 different disabilities were screened based on the inclusion criteria and their performance in the screening tests. The screening process had four categories: Physical Fitness, led by Pamela Pradhan, Physio-therapist, Medica Superspeciality Hospital evaluating the physical strength of the participants; Mental Toughness, led by sports psychologist Anusheela Brahmachary, Medica Superspeciality Hospital evaluating the mental stability, Technical skills led by Sanjay Das, an ace footballer with disabilities himself evaluating the skills and techniques. Finally, the fourth section was Demographic and Disability background led by Abhirupa Kar, disability sports expert and Annesha Das Gupta, program officer, Special Olympics Bharat evaluating the inclusion criteria of the game. All the sports kits used in the camp were supported by Special Olympics Bharat.?
CivilianWelfare
One of the most distinctive features of the camp was the awareness campaign which was led by Akal Chowdhury, an ace para-swimmer himself and the local organizer of the camp for the last two weeks in and around the village covering a range of 100 kms and over 300 families. As a result, participants who turned up were from varied backgrounds. Abhirupa Kar mentioned that the range of participants varied from 9 years to 56 years who all gathered in the camp with the willingness to play the sport.? From people who break boulders for living to people who make ¡®Bidi¡¯ came to participate in the screening. This variation was also high in terms of the types of disability which included cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities and different types of orthopedic disabilities. National level para-athletes like Rebina Khatoon and Sudip Singha were also present in the camp.??
CivilianWelfare
An alarming aspect unveiled in camp was the disparity of information about the disabilities of certain participants. The type of disability mentioned in the disability certificate did not match the actual disability of some participants. For example people with Cerebral Palsy was written as Intellectual Disabilities. This poses a serious question on the credibility of the disability diagnosis system.?
CivilianWelfare
The camp was an overwhelming experience for both the facilitators and the participants. Within the last 24 hours of the camp we have got more than 50 calls from the area with queries about the next camp? Guess there are more Aslimas waiting to be discovered!