Eyeing a govt job, UP rowers struggle in absence of training
LUCKNOW: Sports has been known to get recognition as well as job in a state like Uttar Pradesh. Be it the government-run sports hostels or sports colleges or private and government academies, the aim is to get their sportspersons a suitable job, especially in the government sector.
Uttar Pradesh has been a nursery for sports quota recruitment in police, railways and even in armed forces across the country and going by the record so far, an umpteen number of sportspersons from the state have been serving the country in various capacities. It’s an uninterrupted process since long but the pandemic COVID19 has put breaks on this process.
Latest on the list of such sufferers are 60-odd rowers, based in Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi and Lucknow, who have been struggling to get trained before taking up jobs mainly in defence services.
Despite being not a fully ‘contact’ sport they haven’t been allowed to train in the water and the Uttar Pradesh Rowing Federation has urged the government to allow them to do the training so that they could prepare for jobs.
“Unlike swimming and gymnasium where chances of getting infected with corona virus, rowing doesn’t have that much of a problem as rowers with single and double scull could be allowed by the government, but there is no response to our appeal so far,” UP Rowing Association’s secretary, Sudhir Sharma said on Tuesday.
“Our rowers have already lost important three months of training due to the coronavirus and now the rainy season is all set to give little time to rowers to get ready for the trials for jobs in October-November,” said Sharma, who has been trying hard to bring professionalism in the UPRA ever since he took over the reins in 2018.
The 44-year old UPRA, which came into existence in 1976, has its existence at the Boat Club in Nishatganj here at the banks of river Gomti with the availability of 16 international standard boats, including four single scull, four pair, four double scull and four-four. “We could get these boats under the government’s scheme, where the remaining expenditure of 50 percent was born by the Rowing Federation of India.”
In fact, the season for rowers in India was due to start in July with the conduct of sub-junior nationals at Kolkata, followed by junior nationals at Pune in August and senior nationals at Bhopal in October. “Successful rowers at these championships get a good attention of government organizations, who recruit people through sports quota but due to the corona now things look almost bleak," said Sharma.
After a long time, two youngsters from the state, Yuvraj Singh Yadav and Himanshu could finish fourth at the subjunior nationals at Pune in the under-13 category in 2019, whereas Allahabad’s Shivam Nishad lost out in the semi-finals only in the under-15 category. But the real achievement for UP came at the senior nationals at Hyderabad when the duo of Manish Singh Yadav and Akshat won a bronze medal in 500m men’s pair event. In 2018, Kiran Devi, Raj Narain and Prem Sankar also had bronze medals in different events.
“Now, Kiran Devi has a job in Assam Rifles. Two of our former rowers like Indian team member at the Doha Asian Games, Munshadi Khatun has been hired by the Haryana Sports Department, whereas Kudrat Ali was given the prestigious Laxman award by the UP Government in 2018. Few others like Rajesh Yadav and Dalbir Singh were given Yash Bharti and Arjuna awards, respectively.”
Sharma, however, said that getting jobs in Uttar Pradesh has been a difficult preposition as for the last many years, the concerned authorities are struggling to formulate plan for this. “Look at the non-implementation of the policy of giving jobs in 2015 in which sportspersons with international achievements were supposed to be appointed on gazette posts so expecting anything in near future is very difficult. But if our rowers get proper training now they could be successful in getting jobs in central government’s organisation,” said a senior rower on condition of anonymity.
LATEST ON THE LIST OF SUCH SUFFERERS ARE 60-ODD ROWERS, BASED IN ALLAHABAD, KANPUR, VARANASI AND LUCKNOW, WHO HAVE BEEN STRUGGLING TO GET TRAINED BEFORE TAKING UP JOBS MAINLY IN DEFENCE SERVICES