A 16-year-old promise of a government job landed Paralympic medalist J Deepa outside the secretariat office in Chennai in protest for her rights.
Deepa, who is currently working as a visiting coach under the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT), had earlier applied for a job as an athletics coach from the DMK government of Tamil Nadu back in 2010 after winning the Kalpana Chawla award. The 43-year-old is a 2004 Belgian Paralympic Championship silver medalist and a bronze winner of the 2005 International Open German Athletics Championship.
12 years after the appeal, in 2022, now Deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin, the sports portfolio development of Tamil Nadu, promised her a job in the State Assembly. She was, however, rejected from any grant during the recruitment drive after failing to have a diploma degree from the National Institute of Sports, Bengaluru. She re-applied after getting the degree, but got denied again with the hall ticket due to a problem in her disability category. She was found ineligible to sit for the exam.
The Paralympian currently trains sports students at MGR Sports Stadium in Madurai. Deepa is one of the notable para-athletes with several international victories and experiences. Besides winning in major events like Belgium (2004) and Germany (2005), she has also done some brilliant work in Malaysia (2006) and the Asian Games. However, these achievements have failed to provide her with a sustainable life post sports retirement.
Deepa’s family is currently involved in sports. Her husband is a hockey coach at a private college in Madurai, while both of her daughters have gained quite a lot of experience in hockey, a sport in which one is the Tamil Nadu Junior Women’s Hockey Team captain.
Back in 2022, Deepa had applied for one of the three coaching positions that were kept in reserve for the differently abled. However, due to a technical fault, the officials were unable to proceed with her selection process. However, in 2025, she made another attempt and applied for the four coaching positions which the government had announced for the differently abled.
With a complete professional coaching certification course from the National Institute of Sports, this time, she was not given the hall ticket. As per the Officials, the decision was taken in respect to the current roster that credited the job only to persons with speech and hearing impairment.
