My journey has been about changing people's attitude: Depa Malik on Khel Ratna

Deepa Malik, who was on Saturday nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, believes that her biggest achievement is changing perception of common public towards disability and para-athletes in general.

Malik, a silver medallist at the last Paralympics in Rio feels that her whole journey has been more about trying to change people's attitude towards how they look at disability.

"I am very happy because I have always stood up. This whole journey has been more about changing the attitude of people towards disability and the hidden potential in people with disability. I think its going to come as a huge inspiration to women athletes in disability. It took 70 years for independent India to win medal in Paralympic," Malik told PTI in an interview.

Asked about her journey, Malik said:"In 2012, when I won the Arjuna award and people thought that at 42, it would be retirement age for me. I am happy that disability no bar, gender no bar and age no bar and now at 49, if I can be awarded Khel Ratna for active sports, it validates my journey of ability beyond disability."
Further touching upon the challenges and difficulties faced by the para-athletes, she said,"People think we don't have competition whereas ours is far more competitive. You can qualify but you may still not get to represent your country because there is a quota allocation system (for events). I am glad that the jury factored a para sports woman's journey."
Asked what was next in line for her, Deepa said:"Unfortunately, the 2020 Paralympics does not include my event discus (F 53). On a personal front, I am doing a lot of swimming."