KUALA LUMPUR: The low percentage of Malaysians registered as persons with disabilities (PwD) makes it difficult to unearth more new para athletes who can be groomed to represent the country, the Dewan Negara was told.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said that 685,602 people are registered as PwD thus far and this figure was low compared to the total population of over 33 million people.
“If we look at the statistics this year, the number of PwDs in Malaysia is estimated at 15 per cent of the total population based on global standards but, so far, only 685,602 people are recorded to own the OKU card.
“This is one of the challenges we face in looking for para athletes among the more than 600,000 people to be groomed to become athletes according to their age and type of sports,” she said during the question and answer session today.
She was replying to a supplementary question from Senator Datuk Sivaraj Chandran, who wanted to know the total allocation and programmes implemented for the development of para athletes.
Hannah said for that, the KBS has increased the administration grant for the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) to RM172,000 from RM100,000 previously for the payment of salaries to three new staff for the PCM to organise talent-search programmes at the state and district levels.
She also said that the ministry felt that the RM19 million provided by the government for the development programmes of para athletes was sufficient, for now.
Hannah said the allocation would, among others, be used to fund the Para Podium Programme, development programmes involving backup para athletes, unearth new talent through the establishment of state and district training centres, organisation of tournament circuits and talent camps and the administrative assistance to PCM in implementing para athlete development programmes at the state level.
“However, the PCM always has the opportunity to present its proposals and plans for the implementation of development plans for para athletes and the government will consider the appropriate allocation to ensure what has been planned can be properly implemented,” she said. - Bernama
