HYDERABAD: Aruna Budda Reddy — who walked into history books with a bronze medal winning performance at the recent Gymnastics World Cup — touched down in the city on Friday morning, with a cavalcade of cars ready to receive her.
About 30 km from the airport, her coach of almost a decade, N Brij Kishore had spent close to two weeks on a bed at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology. The 51-year-old was with Aruna in Uzbekistan for World Cup preparations, when he had to rush back due to health complications.
Kishore was recently given Rs 2 lakh by Sports Authority of Telangana State (SATS) to meet his medical expenses. A contracted SATS coach, he highlighted the problems faced by coaches like himself.
His words focussed on regularisation, as most coaches under the state body have been awaiting it for years. “They recently regularised a few yoga teachers. Then why the partiality towards us? This contract-based system is a menace. I do this out of interest. There are no other sources of income for me. I get paid Rs 43,000 per month. I have been coaching for 25 years, and this is what I get. With this salary, I can barely do anything. My wife’s brother is helping out with the expenses right now,” the NIS Patiala-trained coach said.
“My student got a great result. That is the reason behind why I got the cheque. It should not be like this.”
Express contacted boxing coach Omkar Yadav, also under SATS, to learn more. “We get around `40,000. Andhra coaches, who are similar in terms of experience, get as much as `72,000. In early 2000s, the government had promised that 2 per cent of state excise revenue will be spent on sport. It runs into hundreds of crores. However, the SATS budget is miniscule in comparison.”
Yadav also alleged that since 2009, there have been no increments.
“What is he going to get when he retires? There probably will not be any pension either,” lamented Anjali, Kishore’s wife. She works as a private teacher, and earns around Rs 15,000 per month.
When Express got in touch with a SATS official, he said: “I think this is a problem related to one of the policies, which says that coaches above the age of 49 cannot be regularised. This matter has to be taken up in the state cabinet.”
vishal@newindianexpress.com