24 November 2013, 12:10 PM IST
Unlike many other countries, India does not have the luxury of having so many sports people who have won gold medals at Olympics that we would miss out a name or two. Yet, if we are asked to name the wrestler who has won the gold medal twice and a bronze medal in the Olympics, most of us will draw a blank. You have not heard of Virender Singh, have you? Very few people have heard of him because he won them at the Deaflympics.
He won India's first and only gold medal at the 2005 Deaflympics in Melbourne, in 74-84kg freestyle wrestling, a silver medal at the second World Deaf Wrestling Championships in 2008 in Yerevan, Armenia, and a bronze at the 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei, Taiwan and a bronze at the 2012 World Deaf Wrestling Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
That is tragic because he is by far the most successful deaf athlete that this country has ever seen. So why do I not simply refer to him as an athlete? Why do we need to add his disability as a prefix to his profession? Therein lies the story of "Goonga Pehelwan" (translation: Mute Wrestler) as Virender Singh is popularly known in wrestling circles. He wants to be a given a fair chance to compete against able bodied wrestlers and be selected only if he qualifies, not out of sympathy.
So why did he not participate in the Summer Olympics? The powers that be believe that he will not be able to hear the referee's whistle. The International Olympics Association does not prohibit a disabled athlete from competing with able bodied athletes. Remember Oscar Pistorius, the blade runner who competed against able bodied runners and missed the medal by a whisker. Oscar was the first double leg amputee to participate in the Olympics when he entered the men's 400 metres and 4 × 400 metres relay races. So why do we not send someone who has already proved himself capable of winning in the Olympics?
Virender is now the subject of a documentary called "Goonga Pehelwan" made by Mit Jani and two other film makers who are now trying to raise awareness of this issue. Mission Rio 16 aims to help Virender in his quest to reach the Rio Olympics 2016 by filing a Public Interest Litigation in the Delhi High Court to bring about a policy change that allows differently abled athletes to go to the normal Olympics with other deserving athletes.
Like Virender there are many other disabled people who suffer discrimination silently. The India Inclusion Summit hopes that one day everyone will freely, openly and without pity or sympathy accommodate any person with any kind of disability, physical, mental or intellectual, without restrictions or limitations of any kind. Virender will be there at the Summit this year to tell us about his dreams. He hopes that the rest of the country will speak up.
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