When it’s about cricket and you are Indian, the adrenaline rush is inevitable. When you get news that the Indian team has won the World Cup by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan to bring the trophy back home, joy knows no bounds. It brings out all the emotions from fans when their team lifts the prized trophy.
But this time that wasn’t the case. The reason simply was that it wasn’t the victory of the well-known faces of able-bodied men who represent Indian cricket at the international level, but of those who are differently abled — all visually challenged.
India’s blind cricket team recently won the fourth World Cup in South Africa. One can see the humongous difference between how this victory has been celebrated, and the wild celebrations when M.S. Dhoni’s men grabbed the first T20 World Cup, in South Africa.
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Nobody is questioning why Mumbai’s traffic got jammed when Dhoni and his team were put on an open-roof bus to go through the city towards Wankhede Stadium because that’s natural. Being a cricket fan myself, I was also thrilled to watch those scenes coming from Mumbai via TV.
The only question that needs to be raised is why no such attention was being given to the guys in question here because they have achieved no less. Having done the same thing of outplaying and thrashing the opponents, as was done by our ‘able-bodied’ cricket team in 1983, 2007 and 2011, this team deserved some applause by the Indian public, and not just Rs. 5 lakh to each member of the team and some words of appreciation by the Prime Minister and Sports Minister.
The Indian media, that go ga-ga even over India’s victory in a bilateral one-day match, didn’t even do a half-hour news bulletin or a panel discussion, which most of the news channels do every day on the Indian cricket team, whether they are playing or not. No newspaper carried even a half-page story on this victory, leave alone a front page story with pictures.
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The question ‘why’ still persists, and the answer is an ‘open secret’ that everybody knows but is ashamed to mention. The answer is that Indian society doesn’t treat differently abled people well. By that I mean, they are not treated as ‘equals’. Instead they are either discriminated against, looked down upon or in relatively better cases shown ‘sympathy’ — which is not needed at all.
All the TV coverage there was, was in the form of a ticker scrolling at the bottom of the screen or a 10-second clip. Some newspapers at best carried a 100-word story.
This reflects societal attitudes. Even the Ministers posing with the Blind Cricket Team appeared to see it as a kind of public relations act.
Compare this situation with that in western societies where differently abled people are treated with more respect. If one has heard of the Paralympics, which is the Olympics for differently abled sportspersons across the globe, one must know the intensity and level of competition with which all the sports are played by the teams and individuals. It could leave even the champions of different sports astonished.
Things like this should put our heads to shame, but our society is, sadly, shameless in this context which sees disability as a result of the misdeeds from previous births. This is quite an absurd a justification.
Now it’s high time to change ourselves and throw away the blankets of feudalism wrapped around us that drive our actions in many ways. Our country, which is home to the highest number of people with disability (approximately 26.8 million people, according to 2011 data) just can’t afford to turn a blind eye to the sufferings of such a substantial population. The number represents more than the entire population of several other countries put together.
It’s not just about the Blind Cricket Team, but about the whole differently abled population that has been marginalised institutionally. We claim to be very proud as Indians, but the question is, should we really feel proud considering the treatment our patriarchal and feudal society gives to the marginalised groups. Our society that is so heterogeneous, where the law of the land and government of the day celebrate its pluralism, needs to change its attitude. Otherwise, all the big talk about being a proud nation and a good society would just remain a claim that the rest of the civilised world won’t buy.
martandjha@gmail.com