Para athlete Deepa sits on protest after years of wait for government job

A former international medallist para athlete J Deepa staged a protest outside the secretariat in Chennai for not yet being given a government job which was promised to her over 16 years ago on Wednesday.

Deepa, a Kalpana Chawla awardee from 2010, had won a silver medal in the 2004 Belgian Paralympic Championships and a bronze medal in the 2005 International Open German Athletics Championships, to go with her multiple national level medals.

The 43-year-old Deepa, who now works as a visiting coach with the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) had appealed to the then DMK government of Tamil Nadu for a job as an athletics coach in 2010.

As per the New Indian Express, Udhayanidhi Stalin, who handles sports portfolio in the state, had promised her a job in the state assembly back in 2022.

Deepa was rejected in the 2022 recruitment drive for not possessing a diploma from the National Institute of Sports.

She has since acquired the degree and applied again only to be denied a hall ticket with an error in her disability category.