KASARGOD: Taking suo motu cognizance of the plight of special Olympian E Sumesh based on a TNIE report, the State Human Rights Commission has asked the chief secretary to intervene in ensuring a government job for him.On Monday, TNIE reported how Sumesh, 31, the toast of the 2015 Los Angeles Special Olympics, was still waiting for a regular job promised by the then Oommen Chandy government. A native of Kuttamath in Cheruvathur, Sumesh captained India’s national volleyball team and defeated Japan to win the bronze medal for the country.
On the team’s arrival in Kochi, the government promised jobs to the players and `20,000 from the Department of Youth Affairs. There were four Malayalees in the team, and all of them are waiting for the money and the promised job. Sumesh now coaches children in his locality and sells puttu powder.
State Human Rights Commission member P Mohandas has written to the chief secretary to take up the matter so that Sumesh, who lives with intellectual disability, gets a suitable government job. The sports secretary too should intervene in the matter, he said.
The commission has sought reports from both the officials in one month. “Once we get the reports, the case will be taken up during the sitting in Kasaragod,” Mohandas said here. Sumesh’s mother Sreelatha E, a primary teacher in a government school, put him in her school for better integration with society. “But the school and teachers ignored him till Class X,” she said.