Job offer, cash award elude this world chess champion

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 2

Having won a gold and two silver medals at the World Deaf Chess Championships and another gold and a silver at the Asian Deaf Chess Championships in the last six years or so, Malika Handa (25) was extremely distraught on Thursday.

Malika came to me with her father and brother. They discussed her case with me for good 30-40 minutes. I told them that the government has a policy for able-bodied players and para athletes (arms and legs handicap) but none of the other 21 types of disabilities which includes blindness, hearing disorders or mental retardness. — DPS Kharbanda, Director, Sports

She recently completed her graduation and approached the Director, Sports Punjab, in Chandigarh, today for a job and a cash award but not finding a positive response, she broke down right outside his office and posted her video on Twitter expressing her anguish in the sign language. Her video immediately went viral and won her a lot of emotional support.

Reaching home at Basti Sheikh in Jalandhar, Malika’s father Suresh Handa, who is an accountant with a private firm, shared, “Malika is very upset today. My son Atul Handa and I had accompanied her to the office of Director Sports, but she almost got a refusal. My daughter has been playing the game for the past 8-10 years and has been bringing medals for the country and the state just with a hope that these would fetch her job offer just like other Olympians and para athletes.”

He said, “For the past two-three years, she has been told that she must complete her graduation to get a good government job. With high hopes she approached the Director Sports today, she got the reply that there was no policy yet in the state to offer jobs to hearing impaired athletes. This is the fag end of the tenure of the present government. If they have not made a policy till now, they will be able to make it even in the next three months. My daughter has lost all hopes and it is really difficult to convince her at this stage.”

Director Sports Kharbanda said, “Malika came to me with her father and brother. They discussed her case with me for good 30-40 minutes. I told them that the government has a policy for able-bodied players and para athletes (arms and legs handicap) but none of the other 21 types of disabilities which includes blindness, hearing disorders or mental retardness. The Punjab Government is pro-sportsmen and will shortly come up with that policy too. But in the meantime, I told the parents to make her apply for other government jobs like that of a constable. She has a state certificate in the able bodied general category where the department can help her get a job under the 3 per cent quota. We can also help her with Central Government jobs where there already is a policy for the deaf players. She must not lose her heart. The government and the department will back her wherever it can on merit basis.”

Meanwhile, the Sports Minister today decided to extend her Rs11 lakh cash reward over and above the policy.