Multiple Disability Football: The Revival In West Bengal

¡°The worst scenario for any athlete is not getting opportunities to play. That has been our condition since Covid-19. We never had proper infrastructure and arrangements like mainstream athletes for our practice but all our hopes were further washed away by the pandemic. Some of us even shifted to other professions to sustain our livelihood¡±, says Sanjoy Das, a national Multiple Disability Football player. Such is the condition of a national para-athlete in West Bengal.

Mad Men

To bring such para-athletes together and help revive disability sports at large, Civilian Welfare Foundation, in collaboration with TMC ward no.95, JR Foundation, 5 Mad Men and Sudhamata Foundation, is organising a Multiple Disability Football Tournament on April 7 at Azadgarh Grounds on the occasion of World Health Day. The tournament will see around 60 para-athletes from 6 qualifying districts of West Bengal participate in this state-level tournament. This is the first time that a state-level multiple disability tournament is being organised in close association with the state government.

Civilian Welfare Foundation has been actively working for disability sports and rights for the last 12 years with several more than 56 national and 20 international level para-athletes. Since its inception, CWF has initiated critical initiatives resulting in several structural and policy level changes in Para sports in the country and in the state which include the first broadcasting of the Paralympics in India during Rio 2016, the first wheelchair tri-nation cup in Eastern India, the establishment of blind football in Bengal and introduction of multiple disability football the first time in the country. Interestingly CWF also took on board Mad Men which is the only sports pub in the country directly supporting the Paralympics for the last 3 years.

Mad Men

Talking about this unique event Aroop Biswas, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister, Government of West Bengal said, ¡°We are very happy and proud to be able to work together in this unique initiative. We hope to support our para-athletes in the future with the necessary infrastructure so that they can utilise their full potential and make our state and country proud even at the international level.¡± This resonates very much with the strategy of Rahul Dasgupta, Founder of JR Foundation which is working for the marginalised sections in more than 3 countries. From the very beginning of disability football in India, Rahul has been a constant support for para-athletes.

Disability football was introduced in the Paralympic Games for the first time in 1984. The following two forms of Amputee Football: Football 5-a-Side for athletes with visual impairment and Football 7-a-Side for athletes with cerebral palsy are included in the Paralympic games. Football 7-a-Side initially included only athletes with Cerebral Palsy but currently, athletes with locomotor disabilities are also included. Contrary to the idea of inclusion of only one or two types of disability in football which is otherwise a popular sport played in around 200 countries, multiple-disability football was first time introduced in India in 2019 where athletes with any form of disability barring visual impairment and wheelchair can participate. The inkling goes head-to-head with FIFA¡¯s forward program established in 2016 and structured in 2021 for the development of football as a sport for people with any form of disability.

West Bengal is going through turmoil with respect to disability sports with no participation from Bengal in the Indian contingent of more than 100 para-athletes in the Tokyo Paralympic Games 2020. One of the accepted reasons behind this was the lack of grassroots screening of people with disabilities through a sport that requires low cost and low infrastructure. Before 2017 the scenario of quite different with Bengal leading in paralympic sports in the country with the likes of International athletes like Prashanta Karmakar, Ajibur Molla and Shamima Khatun. The presence of a 25-year-old Bengal para-swimming association (which went defunct in 2017) made the difference with athletes joining swimming as a screening sport and then escalating to several other competitive para-sports. Through Mixed Disability Football, a low-cost sport, the target is to make it a screening sport for Bengal through which all athletes can be screened for further participation in various other para-sports. Moreover, 14 athletes from the tournament will be groomed and trained for establishing a multiple disability Bengal team for the nationals. We are very fortunate to have Sudhmata Foundation, an organisation working with mental health issues supporting the cause.

Mad Men

In the words of Atar Ali, an Asian Games 2023 qualifying para-athlete, ¡°This year, only 3 para-athletes from West Bengal qualified for the Asian Games. This was not the scenario even 5 years back. West Bengal used to show one of the highest participation in national and international sporting events and used to bring great laurels as well. There are many talented para-athletes in our state but they go unnoticed due to inadequate screening and opportunities. Organising tournaments and sports camps are the only way to reach athletes at the grassroots level. I am really hopeful that such tournaments will increase the popularity of disability sports and will also garner a lot of support from the general masses for para-athletes like us.¡±

As aptly mentioned by Tapan Dasgupta, the councilor of KMC 95 ward who is the main initiator of the tournament as a government representative it is his duty to help the athletes get back to their passion. The first day when he was approached with this idea, he didn¡¯t even take a moment to promise his support and made sure every demand of the sport is met. After all, athleticism knows no bounds and more and more approaches like this will revive Bengal Paralympics.