The silence on television about the Paralympics in Rio is deafening. None of the television sports channels in India, including Doordarshan, opted to pick up TV rights. Para athletes and disabled rights activists are crying hoarse in the days since the Games began; and some even asked how they could cheer their athletes, as the Prime Minister suggested on Maan ki Baat, if they couldn’t even see them perform. While Indian TV channels lined up at the same venues a month ago to provide virtually hysterical coverage of the Rio Games — the day of the badminton final featuring rising champ P.V. Sindhu hitting a crescendo — none of them showed any interest in the Paralympics, except one channel.
There are around 21 regular and HD frequencies on which sport is beamed to Indian audiences; but except one (Sony Six), which telecasts an hour’s highlights daily, they didn’t think it worthwhile to tie up with the Rio Games authorities. The US, in contrast, is taking 66 hours live from the Games, British broadcaster Channel 4 has shown a fierce and exemplary commitment to the event since its Bafta-winning London 2012 coverage. This channel has been providing fantastic coverage, and with the largest number of disabled presenters to pay tribute to the brave men and women defying the odds stacked against them by nature or by accident. As a viewer, you are also informed of the difference between a T44 and an S9, and what is a Boccia as opposed to Goalball, and various other terms of the classification system by which the variety and severity of disabilities are differentiated in competition.
Take the case of India’s gold medal winner, whose life story is an inspirational tale since a road mishap robbed him of part of a foot. Mariyappan Thangavelu, whose high jump gold is the 10th Paralympics medal for India in all Games, is the son of a vegetable vendor whose family had even contemplated a suicide pact given its acute poverty. The Salem lad’s rise from the depths of despair to gold at the Paralympics is another typical story of an athlete winning despite the Indian system, and not because of it. In producing his career-best jump of 1.89 metres, which saw him vault over an American and fellow Indian Varun Singh Bhati, the Tamil Nadu athlete proved he could produce his best in high-pressure competition. It’s a pity then that this event wasn’t on live TV and probably stole a little space and time in the highlights package. Given the craze for cricket, TV was still replaying Sachin Tendulkar’s Test innings, besides extended replays of football, wrestling, golf and many other sports. But it had little time for the dedicated souls known as para-athletes.
