Haryana: Taxi driver’s daughter set to head for Tokyo Paralympics, rues lack of support

ROHTAK: Soniya Devi and husband Naresh Kumar’s struggle has crossed a milestone. Hailing from a Bhiwani village, 21-year-old Aruna Tanwar is set to leave for Tokyo to participate in the Paralympics in taekwondo.
Aruna has been practising at Rohtak with coach Swaraj Singh since 2017.
In 2017-18, she won gold at the 5th National Paralympic Taekwondo. In 2018-19, she won a silver medal at the Asian Paralympics Taekwondo competition held at Vietnam.She won bronze medal in World Para Taekwondo Championship held at Turkey in 2019.
Aruna said life had not been easy for her as her mother had to sell her jewellery and father took loans to send her to international championships. “I have participated in five international tournaments and won medals,” she added.
She said despite her achievements, she was not considered for a government job by the state and not provided any monetary support. “Barring a Rs 5-lakh advance for para olympians, I have not received any assistance from the state government. I come from a modest family and government support matters a lot for training, diet and travelling,” she added. She said her father worked as a taxi driver and mother a housewif. “Arranging funds for sports has remained a big issue for them,” she added.
She said before 2017, she used to participate in general games, but after learning about opportunity for disabled athletes, she started participating in para-games.