Lakshmi Prabha smiles as she hands out bars of chocolate to the small group scattered around the auditorium at Vidya Sagar, an organisation that works with persons of disability, in Kotturpuram. The chairs have been pushed aside and trainer Sathish Kumar is moving about on his wheelchair, getting chalk lines marked on the wooden floor, for a court.
The sweet treats, laughter and chatter is a Saturday fixture for a small but growing community in Chennai that comes together to play boccia every week.
This Saturday, the treats are courtesy of Lakshmi’s recent victory at the eighth Boccia National Championship in Gwalior. She holds up her gold medal, which she won in the individual category.
“This is a sport I can play comfortably from my wheelchair. I was thrilled to go to the Nationals and win,” she says. “I come here every week and have made many friends,” adds Lakshmi.
Boccia was first introduced in 1984 at the Paralympics in New York as acompetitive sport and at present, is one among two sports in the world that does not have an Olympic counterpart. The sport can be played individually, as a pair, or as a team and has categories for the same. Over the last few years, organisations working with persons with disabilities across the country, have taken up the cause of this interesting sport.
Back in 2016, Rajiv Rajan, executive director, Ektha (a disabled peoples’ organisation), and Sathish Kumar, the current boccia programme coordinator, both from Chennai, embarked on a journey to make persons with disabilities in the city, aware of the existence of this Paralympic sport. They believed that boccia would be a turning point for people who were unable to do other activities independently.
“It was originally designed for people with cerebral palsy. At present however, persons with a wide range of disabilities who use wheelchairs, enjoy playing the sport,” Sathish says. “There is a lot of mind, and hand-and-eye coordination involved.”
On the temporary court at Vidyasagar’s auditorium, five players arrange themselves at one end. Armed with red and blue balls, the goal is for them to throw the balls as close as possible to a white ball on the floor. There are prolonged silences as each player takes their time to aim at the white ball, and loud cheers when the red and blue balls inch close to it.
A common refrain, among players like K Dharmesh (a National-level athlete) is how they were unaware of boccia or how it is played. This was one of the first things that Ektha worked on addressing in 2016. “We had to popularise the sport. While we initially started off with spreading the word among persons with disabilities in Chennai, we also started conducting camps across Tamil Nadu, and other neighbouring states. We focus on special schools, to introduce boccia to children,” Rajiv says.
In Chennai, Ektha is the only organisation that currently trains aspiring players, and has around 40 active players. “I am sure there are at least 100 people in the city who will be interested, and can become great players with the right practice. We have introduced the game to around 1,000 wheelchair users in Tamil Nadu so far,” says Sathish. National-level games, like the recent tournament in Gwalior sees a participation of around 100 or more players from across India.
Over the years, several members from this growing community have won laurels. While there is a State-level tournament that Ektha organises, players from Chennai like Lakshmi Prabha are an integral part of National-level tournaments and have won trophies and medals many times. The sport has now become an important part of their lives.
Tariq Ansar, who was among the winners of the State-level boccia tournament last year, jokes about how people at his workplace know of his schedule, and are not surprised any more when he heads out of office early to make it to practice on Saturday.“When I initially heard of boccia, my parents were hesitant to even let me come for these training sessions as they hadn’t heard of the sport. Many wheelchair users like me, are eager to learn new things and this is a great opportunity,” he says, of the recognition that boccia has given him.
The community that plays boccia in Chennai also has a growing wish list. Rajiv says more sports facilities in the city need to be accessible for persons with disabilities. “The balls used to play boccia are not available in India and need to be imported. For persons who cannot use their hands, a specially built ramp is used which is very expensive. We do not have one and hence, aren’t able to practise with the same,” he says. Many of them travel long distances to get to these training sessions at Vidya Sagar. Accessible transport is another constant concern. All the training and participation in tournaments has been free so far, and for some players, Ektha has also worked on reimbursing their travel costs to training sessions.
There is one thing though that all of them who play agree on, that the weekly training sessions here have introduced them to some of their closest friends. There are hot samosas being passed around, after the training session is done.
He adds, “Our goal from the start has been to bring out persons with disabilities who are confined to their homes, train them and give them the opportunity to participate in tournaments. While this has definitely been possible, the camaraderie is also something we are thankful for as well.”
