Arjuna awardee Parul Parmar

MASTERJI!

Postmaster J K Bhavsar denies Arjuna awardee Parul Parmar an hour’s leave to attend a Women’s Day felicitation So much for celebrating Women’s Day


DILIP PATEL

In 2009, this badminton player received the Arjuna Award, the highest national honour for achievement in sports. Parul Parmar, 36, was the first player from the state to receive the award in the paralympics category in the last 11 years.
On International Women’s Day on Monday, the polio-affected shuttler should have been one of the 20 proud women achievers to have been felicitated by Udgam, a Gandhinagar-based NGO.
But Parmar was busy handing out postal stamps to customers at Post and Telegraph Department office in Sector 11. She was denied permission to take an hour’s time off to attend that function.
This despite the NGO chairman Mayur Joshi requesting postmaster J K Bhavsar to grant her an hour’s time off for the felicitation ceremony.
“I was told that she looks after the stamps counter and cannot be given leave due to heavy workload. We were very disappointed. She is the only person from Gandhinagar to have been honoured with an Arjuna Award. She is a role model for so many women in the state. Now, we shall do the honours at her residence,” Joshi said. Parmar, whose right leg is polio-affected, was crowned singles and doubles champion at the world championships in Thailand in 2007 and the Asian championships in Bangalore in 2008.
She has 11 gold medals to her credit. She had even won the badminton championship held at first Asiad Paralympics in Kuala Lumpur in 2004.
In Gujarat, till today, 13 people have received the Arjuna Award. Former India wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia, was the last recipient of the award, way back in 1998. Since the Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961, only 12 sportspersons from Gujarat have made it to the illustrious list.
“My sister is the 13th sportsperson from the state and the only from the P&T Department in the country to have received the award. But here people do not value her,” says her brother Mahesh Parmar.
He says she always finds it difficult to get leave for badminton tournaments. “Twice in the past she was not granted permission to attend tournaments. Most of the times she is given permission at the eleventh hour. Officials say there is too much of work and they cannot let her go. As per rule, Central Government employees, who are selected to participate in sporting events of national or international importance are entitled to get period of actual days on which they participate in the event as also the time spent in travelling treated as duty,” he says adding, “She had to forego several days of casual leave in order to participate at the world championship in Thailand in 2007.”
When contacted postmaster Bhavsar said: “I don’t remember any NGO having told me about any such ceremony. Senior superintendent has to approve her leave. You better talk to him.”