Handball nursery at Sirsa village ray of hope for underprivileged

Advertisement

Anil Kakkar

Sirsa, March 5

A handball nursery at Khairekan village in Sirsa district has become a ray of hope for underprivileged and needy players. Players at this training centre are not only honing their skills but also winning medals at the state and national levels, besides improving their livelihoods by securing government jobs and other employment opportunities.

Helps players bag govt jobs under sports quota

• The panchayat, with the assistance of the Block Samiti, got the handball stadium constructed at a cost of about Rs 12 lakh
• Coach Sandeep Bhatia claims 150 players from this training centre have won medals so far
• He claims more than 25 handball players from the village have secured government jobs in the BSF, CRPF, Haryana Police, Sports Department and other departments under the sports quota

Village sarpanch Suman Thakur said the panchayat was committed to keeping the youth away from vices. “In line with this, with the assistance of the Block Samiti, the handball stadium was constructed at a cost of around Rs 12 lakh,” he said.

Coach Sandeep Bhatia, who provides handball coaching to children here, says 150 players from this nursery had won medals so far. He said five of his players had also represented India internationally. Deepak Gharu was part of the Indian sub-junior team in the Partille Cup in Sweden in 2012. Sandeep Guchha participated in the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi in 2019. Parveen, Rakesh and Vijay were part of the senior Indian team at the championship held in Nepal in 2017.

The coach said, “Currently, around 100 boys and nearly 40 girls are practising handball at the training centre in the mornings and evenings. As they come from a poor background, the aim is to provide them job opportunities through sports and keep them away from vices.”

He said more than 25 handball players from the village had secured government jobs in the BSF, CRPF, Haryana Police, Sports Department and other departments under the sports quota.

He said children from surrounding villages like Chamal, Khyowali, Bansudhar and Panjuana also came there for training. He said the Sports Department provided a monthly stipend of Rs 1,500-2,000 for each child’s diet.

Over 250 players have competed at the national, state and district levels. Among them, 36 players, including two girls, have played at the national level and over 200 players have competed at the state level, the coach said.

Recently, two players from the Khairakan Club participated in the national games and won gold medals. Manish Kumar represented Haryana in the Junior National Handball Championship held in Jaipur from December 9 to 12, 2023, where the Haryana team won the gold medal. In the Under-17 category in Jaipur in December 2023, Mohit Sharma played for Punjab and won gold.

“I represented India in a tournament at Nepal and won the gold medal. Currently, I am serving in the CRPF. The club provides various facilities to its players and many good players have emerged from here,” said Praveen Kumar, an international player. “Along with boys, teams of girls have also been formed in the village. Soon, girls will also bring laurels to the village like boys,” said the sarpanch.