Jaipur Sports Conclave: Paris Paralympics bronze medallist Mona Agarwal hopes for sustained support for parasports

Squash international Surbhi Misra was the other member in this ‘Women power in sports’ panel along with Manjusha Kanwar from Indian Oil and Anupam Nidhi from Hindustan Zinc.

“The government is getting out great schemes [for para athletes]. But I think these are not getting to the athletes who need it,” Mona Agarwal (extreme right) said. | Photo Credit: R V Moorthy

Paris Paralympics 2024 bronze-medallist shooter Mona Agarwal on Saturday revelead she struggled to upgrade her equipement ahead of the quadrennial event during the Sportstar Sports Conclave — Focus Rajasthan at the Poornima University in Jaipur.

“The government is getting out great schemes [for para athletes]. But I think these are not getting to the athletes who need it. I won a paralympic quota in March, and in the next six months till the Olympics, I struggled just to upgrade my equipment. I could not do it time and had to manage with the basic ones,” Mona said during a panel discussion moderated by the Chief Revenue Officer of The Hindu Group, Suresh Balakrishna.

Mona started shooting in December 2021 after competing across multiple parasports including powerlifting, volleyball and athletics.

“I was shooting from December 2021 but I started playing sports in 2016. I tried athletics and won two medals at the State level. I am a founding player of sitting para volleyball. When I went to states to promote it, I found the parents were concerned about safety. I realised I needed to set an example for people to take notice. I then switched to shooting and luckily got success early,” Mona said.

The 10m air rifle shooter in SH1 category felt women faced barriers which deter them from taking up sport. “In our country, it is very difficult to accept when women progress. Despite the recognition, we set barriers for women. And these are tough to break from. Most do not manage to clear those hurdles. There can be more women playing,” she added.

Former squash international Surbhi Misra, who also runs the Surbhi Misra Foundation, echoed Mona’s concern in not finding aid from corporates and governments. Dedicating funds and attention to a select sport might be a way out, she suggested.

“I would not say there is no support, but it is not enough. It is enough to just sustain. If we have to break the barrier, it has to be a lot more.

 L-R ) Manjusha Kanwar (DGM, Sports – Indian Oil), Surbhi Misra (Squash international), Anupam Nidhi (CSR Head, Vedanta Group & Hindustan Zinc) and Mona Agarwal (Paralympic Bronze Medallist) during the Sporstar Sports Conclave - Focus Rajasthan. | Photo Credit: RV Moorthy

“What we need is for corporations to choose a few sports. When you try to take up too many sports, it does not work. The government cannot do everything. [For example], they give us Rs 2 crore and want six medals in return. And if the success does not come, the funds go down next time. The players also say the same. It is us pushing them. Another problem then is to go to the grassroots. We are looking at just 30-40 players, what about the next crop? We need to work on the next generation,” Surbhi said.

The Corporate Social Responsibily Head of Hindustan Zinc, Anupam Nidhi, suggest a way to develop grassroot programmes for girls that has yielded results for the Zinc Football Academy in Rajasthan. Mohammed Kaif, a student of Zinc Football Academy, was part of India squad for the Under-17 SAFF Championships 2024.

“Infrastructure and coaches are important for kids. They are important to identify the talent and strengthen it. We have two good football academies, one in Goa and the Zinc football academy in Rajasthan. Infrastructure, coaches and technology is what we are focussing in. The youth comes into this setup. Why we are succeeding is because we brought it together. After 40 years, we had someone representing India,” Nidhi said.

Nidhi also emphasised on India’s spending potential in sport. “Rs 25,000 crore is what we [Hindustan Zinc] invest in a year and just about one per cent is into CSR. Rs 1600 crore is the market for sport in India, which is less seeing the kind of scope in the country,” she said.

Manjusha Kanwar, a Commonwealth-medallist badminton player, who now serves as deputy general manager with Indian Oil Corporation, said the company’s focus on women’s sport and parasports has increased.

“I think over the last decade more focus has gone towards women. That is because of the medals won in the Olympics. If I take Indian Oil, I got equal priority as the men. We took in a women’s hockey team which shows the company is dedicated to promoting women sports. We will go one step further with the para scholarships which will be 50 per cent each for men and women,” Manjusha said.

On how the initiatives can be better implemented, Manjusha said: “A lot more can be done. A lot more encouragement is needed to take up sport at grassroots. We have to go deeper to districts and villages and pull them to take up sport. The last decade, we started giving scholarships to get to the grassroots. The government has to have all the stakeholders together, it cannot get repetitive. We need to see what needs to be done, identify who can do it and assign those roles.”

The Sportstar Sports Conclave - Focus Rajasthan is powered by Poornima University, with Indian Oil, SBI, and Pratiyogita Darpan as associate partners, Great SportsTech as the Sports Technology Partner, KPMG as Knowledge Partner, and Spark as the Media Partner.