A promising para-athlete, a plucky HCS officer

Deepender Deswal

Ekta Bhyan is a promising para-athlete of the country. She is a Haryana Civil Services (Allied) officer and is at present posted as Assistant Employment Officer in the divisional employment office in Hisar. She has shown nerves of steel to pursue her new-found passion for sports. 

Ekta, 33, daughter of retired horticulture officer Dr Baljeet Bhyan, has qualified for the Asian Para Games to be held in Indonesia in October this year. She won the gold medal and a bronze medal in club throw and discus throw, respectively, at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Tunisia last month. She at present is ranked fifth in discus throw and sixth in club throw in the world and number one in both sports in Asia. 

Ekta is wheelchair-bound due to a quadriplegic spinal cord injury suffered in a road accident on August 4, 2003. She was one of the two survivors while five other girls were killed when an overloaded truck overturned and fell on their vehicle parked by the roadside near Kundli on the Delhi-Haryana border 14 years ago. The girls were going to attend a coaching class for the Pre-Medical Test in Delhi and it was Ekta’s first day. The mishap left her lower portion completely paralysed but she bravely fought the sudden turn of events in her life.

“Initially it was really tough to come to terms with physical disability. However, the zeal for life renewed during my stay in the All-India Institute of Medial Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, for treatment and rehabilitation,” she says. Though her dream to study medicine was aborted due to prolonged treatment, she continued to pursue her education and completed graduation with English (Honours). She was selected as auditor in the Haryana Government and she subsequently cleared the HCS examination in 2011. 

In 2014, she turned to sports and started practising under Arjuna awardee para-athlete Amit Saroha from Sonepat. She started gaining confidence after participating in international events. She won the silver medal in the Grand Prix, Germany (Club Throw) in 2016. “There was no looking back afterwards. It’s an honour and matter of personal satisfaction when I win medals for my country at the world arena. My target is to bring a gold medal for the country in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” she says.  

With her parents always by her side, Ekta is a shining example for society, which has an obsession for sons. “We are proud of Ekta and want Haryanvi people to support their daughters and sisters in pursuit of their own dreams. They have immense power and talent. Don’t suppress them for a false sense of honour, which smacks of male chauvinism,” says Baljeet Bhyan, Ekta’s father. Every disability can be overcome by grit and determination and little help from the family.