International Chess Player from Punjab, Malika Handa, on Monday met Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao in Hyderabad. Reacting to a video of Malika on Twitter, the minister had earlier promised financial assistance his to the chess player.
Handa flew down from Jalandhar to Hyderabad on the invitation of KTR and, as promised, the minister extended a financial support of Rs 15 lakh and handed over the cheque to her.
KTR stated he called Malika in his personal capacity after hearing about her plight and the unfair treatment she was receiving from the Punjab state government.
Along with Rs 15 lakh, the minister also provided her with a laptop to help her participate in online championships.
The minister stated that Malika has brought laurels to the country. “Many congratulations. You have won the world already,” said Minister KTR while talking to Malika.
“We are proud of what she has achieved till now and she definitely deserves all the credit for the hard work she has put in,” he said.
Rao asked Malika about the kind of policies that can be bought in to support disabled sportspersons from Telangana and asked officials to study the best policy frameworks that can be adopted to benefit such sportspersons in his state.
He also appealed to Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Thakur, to help Malika get a government job.
With the help of an interpreter, Malika interacted with KTR and said that chess is not being seen as a mainstream sport by the government of India.
“I am overwhelmed with the warm welcome and support received from the Telangana government. My heartfelt thanks to minister KTR for recognising me and supporting me,” said Malika.
Handa, 26, is an professional chess player who is deaf and dumb. She finished her bachelors in arts and is the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in the International Deaf Chess Championship in 2016, which took place in Armenia.
Malika was born in Jalandhar, Punjab. She was not born deaf but lost her hearing and speech when she was one-year-old. She now has 90 percent hearing disability.
She began to play chess at the age of 15 and has won the national deaf chess championship six times thus far. She is the only woman from Punjab to have represented the state nine times in national championships.
She has also won one gold and two silvers in world deaf chess championship and as well as in Asian deaf chess championship.
She is now preparing for the world championship which is scheduled to take place in September 2022 in Poland.
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