Lack of financial aid drives 18-year-old Grandmaster SL Narayanan to seek help via crowdfunding
Eighteen-year-old SL Narayanan, who became India’s 40th chess grandmaster last year, is now at the mercy of donations on a crowdfunding platform to seek financial support to pursue his dream of winning gold for India.
Shreya Biswas
New Delhi, December 2, 2016 | UPDATED 12:10 IST
When he was as young as 11, Kerala-based Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan won a silver medal at the Commmonwealth Chess Championship (U-12 category). Two years later, he grabbed gold at the same competition in the Under-16 category.
In 2015, at the age of 17, Narayanan waltz his way into the coveted list of Chess Grandmasters after securing a third place at the Philippine Open Championship.
This year, in the World Junior Chess Championship, Narayanan bagged bronze. He currently sits on a FIDE rating of 2541, and a world rank of 577.
Despite such achievements, Narayanan had to resort to seeking financial support on a crowdfunding platform to continue his career, and pursue his dream of winning gold for India.
WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT SUPPORT?
In Narayanan’s family, who live in Mannanthala, Thiruvananthapuram, his mother is the sole earner. And the maintenance of a world grandmaster’s coaching does not come cheap.
This is where the government comes in, which is supposed to provide necessary support to budding athletes so that they can keep on with their training. But that has not been the case for Narayanan.
Speaking exclusively to India Today Digital, 18-year-old Narayanan said the financial aid promised by the Kerala government never came this year.
“I received financial aid in 2014 and 2015, but it hasn’t come this year,” said the soft-spoken college-goer. “They [the state government] have been irresponsible.”
Narayanan also believes that there has been “inequality” in the way the government treated him as compared to other grandmasters.
“As far as I know, a fellow grandmaster of mine received much more support than I did,”Narayanan told IndiaToday.in. “He got a flat and other things…I see inequality in treatment here.”
On his crowdfunding page, Narayanan writes that he and his family are “still in discussion to see if we can get some support from the government,”. In the mean time, international chess tournaments due next year come closer.
LACK OF SPONSORSHIP
In the Isle of Man International 2016, Narayanan secured a best performer ranking award. He is currently gearing up for World Junior and Girls U-20 Chess Championship 2017, which would be held in Italy.
“I want to win gold in this championship,” Narayanan tells India Today.in. “I’ve been training very hard for it.”
The Airport Authority of India provided Narayanan with a scholarship from May. Although the contribution mattered, it was not sufficient.
In his crowdfunding page, Narayanan writes that a tournament participation cost goes up to “a total amount of Rs 13 lakh”, while the foreign grandmaster level chess coaching can be as high as “Rs 7 lakh a year”.
“Our urgent need is for Rs 3.5 lakh for these two international tournaments. Including miscellaneous expenses, this would come to a total of Rs 5 lakh,” he said.
A CONTRIBUTION OF MERE RS 17,500 IN FOUR MONTHS
Narayanan, who is studying BA in English at Mar Ivanios College in Thiruvananthapuram, started the crowdfunding page on Milaap in August. So far, he has raised just Rs17,500 of his goal of Rs.500,000.
In a country that has a population of 127 crore, Narayanan received contributions from only five individual supporters in four long months.
Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in