Superwoman on wheels: Padma Govidugari

Crossing barriers and encouraging the specially-abled, Padma Govidugari, the president of Telangana State Wheelchair Basketball Association has set an inspiration by participating in the Aritel marathon that was held recently. Being a woman with a strong zeal to set milestones and reach them at the age of 50, she is truly an inspiration for many who feel low about themselves. Speaking about the wheelchair marathon and basketball she shares her experience…

How do you feel being a part of the marathon?
It feels great that we have the sense of achievement and able to discover ourselves and limitations. Usually we have been hearing that people like us cannot achieve anything in life but since two years as we started doing marathon we heard the people who are normal speak positive about us which makes us feel satisfied.

Since how many years have you been participating in the marathon?
We started participating since 2017 club run. This is our second Airtel marathon. So in two years we have completed four runs.

What inspired you?
They were nobody running in the wheelchairs earlier. Hyderabad runners invited us to participate in their annual club run in 2017 to make the run an all-inclusive marathon. We never imagined ourselves running at the age of 50 until then; we never ventured into such kind of activities. We thought we could try it out and see if we could do it. For the first time when we got the taste of it we happened to get hooked and we started practicing. It is a fun run and we enjoy a lot along with our team. We hope that people will start exercising and running when they see us participating.

You are the president of Telangana State Wheelchair Basketball Association. Tell us about your love for sports and basketball?
My love for basketball started in 2016. Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India conducted a training programme for trainees and coaches. With curiosity I enrolled my name. I started playing the first day and realised that if they were facilities like these 25 years ago, our life would have been totally different. But this team sport is not promoted in India and at present, there’s no presence of wheelchair basketball in Telangana. I thought the next generation should not be deprived of such facilities, and with the help of Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India and Sports Authority of Telangana I started promoting the game and gathered a team.

Though there were no proper wheelchairs we managed to train our team and went to quarter finals in the National level. We are going to Chennai for the fifth National championship next month. There have been a lot of hindrances, though there is government’s support. We have been getting funds from corporates and the rest we manage to pull up to promote the game. Playing basketball gives you complete physiotherapy and simultaneously you enjoy the game. More players started showing interest. The game that started with the team of four is now a fifteen-member-team consisting of both men and women.

Tell us more about how wheelchair basketball is played!
The height of the basket, the length, breath, court measurements and the rules and regulations are the same except for two rules of fouls. There is no concession of rules when it comes to wheelchair basketball. We just have to sit on the wheelchair and play the game. It is tough game compared to the regular basketball because the person sitting on the wheelchair has to manage the ball and the wheelchair and play the game. It is more like multitasking.

Do you have plans to join the Paralympics?
Yes we do have plans to join the Paralympics team. We are sending one of the basketball players from our team to represent India in the Paralympics which is going to be held in the 2020. Right now we are concentrating on the National game and after that we plan to move ahead. We are looking forward to some funding and help from the state government for proper coach and sports wheelchairs for basketball.

We play in Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar stadium along with other people at the court, which gives us only 30 minutes to practice and that is not enough. We represent Telangana at the National level and only three of us happen to get to represent India; the rest could not because of lack of facilities. We have only three women players and we are trying to enroll more women players.

What according to you is the importance of sports?
Educating in school is not the only education, in my view sports also helps in education. I urge people, who have specially-abled kids to encourage them to take up any kind of sports so that they become mentally fit.

What are the future plans?
In Hyderabad we do not have permission to participate in 10k or full marathon because of the safety issues. In Chennai people in wheelchair are participating in half marathons. We want the same to happen in Hyderabad. We are aiming to work on this and make people accept that we are capable of doing anything. And we want to work towards talking wheelchair basketball to every district. We want to form a women’s team soon.