National Karate medalist, Bimla Munda a 26-year-old player from Ranchi, Jharkhand is trapped in the violence of poverty and forced to sell hadia(rice beer) for her livelihood. She still awaits for a government job for which she has been elected but the system disappoints her each time.
Munda had brought several laurels for Jharkhand. She has been a silver medalist at the 34th National Games in 2011 in Jharkhand and also won a gold medal in the 2012 Kudo International Championship organized by film actor Akshay Kumar.
In February this year, she had started coaching classes to train budding karate players for her daily bread butter. But due to the Coronavirus-induced lockdown in March, she had to shut it down. Speaking to press in her village, she says, “Due to the lockdown, I had to shut the coaching after a month. So I have no option but to sell Hadiya for a living.”
Further, she added that she sell 70 to 80 glasses of Hadiya every day at her home in the village. The cost of one glass is Rs 4. Most of her income is spent on buying household needs.
Bimla has a family of six members, including four siblings. Her father is a farmer by profession who used to work as a daily laborer for their living. She has lived in Patragonda village of Kanker block, Ranchi with her maternal grandfather since childhood. Her parents live in Sagrampur village.
“I have been living with my grandfather since childhood. My grandfather retired before 2000. Jharkhand was not separated from Bihar then. He gets a pension of around Rs 6,000 every month but most of his pension amount goes into his medicine,” Bimla added.
Bimla also stated that she is one of the 33 players who have been nominated for Jharkhand’s government job scheme for sportspersons but she hasn’t received any appointment letter so far.
According to Bimla, she has applied for the direct job scheme in 2019, her papers were also verified in February, officially it was told that she would get the appointment letter by March but still, she is waiting for it.
When sports secretary Pooja Sehgal was contacted by Sanjoy Dey of Hindustan Times Ranchi, she said, “Appointment letter will be given to them within a month.”
Meantime, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren took note of the news of Bimla and asked the Ranchi Deputy Commission to look into the matter.
