To make ends meet, world champ works as domestic help in Rohtak

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Sisar Khas (Rohtak), June 15

It’s a classic case of government apathy towards a girl who has brought laurels to the country in sports.

Sunita, a backward class girl from Sisar Khas village of Rohtak district who has won numerous national and international medals in strength-lifting, presently works as a domestic help in the village to make ends meet.

Her family is so poor that they do not get even two square meals a day. Sunita primarily lives on a diet of ‘roti’ and ‘mirchi’ (chapatis and green chillies) and labours hard to maintain her fitness and strength. She has been using branches of trees and bricks to practise her sport.

“My father is a labourer and mother works as domestic help. I also assist my mother whenever she gets assignments of cooking food at local ceremonies and get-togethers. I also do household chores and serve incapacitated elders of well-to-do villagers for a living,” Sunita says as she makes ‘rotis’ on an earthen ‘chulha’.

Sunita’s parents Jamuna Devi and Ishwar Singh, who work as daily-wagers, have taken loans from private moneylenders for her training and her travels to participate in sporting events. “We had to take a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh on heavy interest from a private moneylender to send her to Bangkok for the World Strength-lifting Championship in 2020. We are working hard to repay the loan,” says Jamuna.

Sunita won the gold medal in the World Championship. She has also bagged the gold medal in the National Strength-lifting Championship-2019 organised in Chhattisgarh and silver medal in the National Strength-lifting Championship-2021 in West Bengal. Political leaders ranging from local MLA Balraj Kundu to Union Minister Rajnath Singh have acknowledged Sunita’s achievements and assured her of help, but no help has been received till date.

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