RANCHI: Bimla Munda, a national karate champion who has fetched dozens of medals for the state, including a silver in the 34th National Games, is forced to sell ‘handia’ (rice bear) to earn a living.
“Due to poor financial conditions of my family, I was forced to start this business during lockdown to earn a living for my family and bear the expenses to continue my karate practice,” said Munda, 26.
“In this game, one has to pay the fees from own pockets and bear travelling costs for every tournament, which requires a lot of money,” she added. The Jharkhand girl says she has so many medals that she does not have proper space at home to keep them safe and most of them are getting broken or discoloure.
Munda’s mother used to work as a daily wage labourer but stopped going for work due to old age and poor health. Munda, a graduate in Accounts, started learning karate when she was in Class 5.
She played her first tournament in 2008 and bagged her fist medal in a district level tournament.
“I bagged silver medal in the 34th National Games organised in Jharkhand in 2011. I also bagged two gold medals during Akshay Kumar International Karate Championship in 2014,” she said.
She had hoped to get some scholarship or job from the state government, but no such thing happened.
Having no other option, she started selling ‘handia’ along with her mother. She lives with her parents and maternal grandfather.
Looking at haul of medals and certificates, Munda says she earlier she used to feel proud of her achievements but time has made her face the hard reality .
Munda says she won’t seek any financial help from the state government, but wants it to expedite the process of recruitment under which 33 out of 264 sportspersons, who had won medals for the state, were selected for direct recruitment in government jobs in 2019.
“We were hopeful after the previous government announced direct recruitment of sportspersons who fetched medals. But it got diminished as time passed on as not efforts were made in this regard by this government,” she said.
CM Soren takes note of her plight, orders action
Taking note of a tweet by a local journalist on Sunday, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren directed Ranchi
Deputy Commissioner through his twitter handle to “provide immediate relief to sister Bimla Munda with the coordination of Sports Secretary”.