Sign the Petition: Urge the IPC to allow our paralympic athletes to participate in the upcoming events

We’ve started the petition to “Urge the IPC to allow our athletes to participate in the upcoming paralympic events” and need your help to get it off the ground.

We have petitioned “Sarbananda Sonowal, Lov Verma, Xavier Gonzalez, CEO, IPC, J Chandrashekhar, General Secretary PCI to take action.

Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here’s the link:

http://www.change.org/p/sarbananda-sonowal-lov-verma-xavier-gonzalez-j-chandrashekhar-general-secretary-pci-urge-the-ipc-to-allow-our-athletes-to-participate-in-the-upcoming-paralympic-events

Here’s why it’s important:

The International Paralympic Committee(IPC) de- recognised the Paralympic Committee of India(PCI) on April 15th 2015. They cited  “unresolved individual conflicts which are undermining the development of the Paralympic movement in India” as the reason for the indefinite ban. This is the 3rd time in 4 years that this Indian body has been derecognised by the international federation.

Due to this suspension Indian athletes will not be able to participate in any IPC-sanctioned events including India’s first Open Para games, until the ban is lifted.

This issue is important as the the World blind Games happen in South Korea next month and if nothing is done about it, our athletes will not be allowed to participate in the event for no fault of theirs. Even the Indian Open Para Games scheduled to start from May 2nd may need to be cancelled due to this ban.

This petition is started to urge the officials in power and the PCI officials to look into this matter at the earliest and resolve their internal issues and convince the international federation to lift the ban.

With no access to formal coaching, limited access to funds , no sponsorship, barely any media coverage, these athletes, fighting against all odds, train to represent their country at various levels. Inspite of all the discrimination they are made to face, they do not fall behind in playing for their country. Is it then fair, that they should be stopped from participating in these events for no fault of theirs?Why should they suffer for the wrong doings of a select few officials?

While the inquiry on the PCI can go on, we request the Sports ministry to institute a new paralympic athletes committee in the mean time and urge the International Paralympic Committee to allow our athletes to participate in the upcoming events.

We request the government to react to this situation asap and make sure our athletes do not miss out on the events coming up next month. They deserve much more than what is being done for them. It is not their fault and they should not be kept away from participating.

We also urge the government to also institute a new commission of sports persons who will represent the logistic and training needs of paralympic athletes and work towards providing them their basic rights.

You can sign the petition by clicking here.

It will make a difference.