International woman para-athlete awaits govt. job for three years

A Madurai-based international para-athlete continues to await a government job even three years after a formal announcement by Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin in the Assembly in 2023 in this regard.

J. Deepa, 43, a highly-decorated international para-athlete, has shined at major international sports events held in Belgium (2004), Germany (2005), Malaysia (2006), and the Asian Games.

Her contributions to the global sporting platform were recognised in 2010 by the then Chief Minister K. Karunanidhi, who honored her with Kalpana Chawla Award.

As a first-generation graduate who narrowly escaped female infanticide in Usilampatti region, Ms. Deepa says she has struggled throughout her life to establish a professional standing in sports.

She laments that while her international achievements and awards are meant to secure her professional future, they have largely remained symbolic rather than providing practical support needed to sustain her life.

“When I first met Karunanidhi in 2010, I sought a government job to support my maternal family and two young daughters,” she recalls.

Her entire household is deeply rooted in sports: her husband serves as a hockey coach at a private college in Madurai, and her two daughters have reached great heights in the sport, currently one of them leading Tamil Nadu Junior Women’s Hockey Team as captain.

When Ms. Deepa applied for one of the three coaching positions reserved for the differently abled, as advertised by the State Government in 2022, the selection process failed to move forward due to technical complications.

She says although the three coaching positions for the differently abled were announced alongside 87 general coaching roles, officials failed to clarify that the para-athlete coaching positions did not actually require a specific diploma degree in sports.

Following media coverage of her plight, Mr. Udhayanidhi announced a government job for her in the Assembly. However, Ms. Deepa expresses her deep disappointment as this announcement was never followed up by Ministers or higher officials, leading the Sports Department to neglect her case.

Despite repeated setbacks, Ms. Deepa applied once again when four coaching positions were announced for the differently abled by the government in 2025. Meanwhile, she completed a professional coaching certification course from the National Institute of Sports, Bengaluru.

Nevertheless, she did not even receive a hall ticket for the examination. Officials claimed that under the current roster system, the vacancies were reserved for ‘persons with speech and hearing impairment’ and did not include those with locomotor disabilities.

Ms. Deepa argues that since her job was a specific promise made by the government, it should have been honoured; at the very least, she should have been allowed to compete for the new positions.

She further highlights a contradiction in the department’s reasoning, noting that a para-athlete with a locomotor disability was included in the final list of selected candidates.

With a family legacy of national and international sports recognition, Ms. Deepa asks how much longer she must battle with the officials for a job. To make ends meet, she is now privately training young sports students.