Panaji, 31 October (Hindustan Reporter). It has been more than a decade since Seema first stepped out of her village Reta in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba district to participate in a local school sports competition. The villagers had then protested against her as the elders were unhappy that a school-going girl was participating in sports but Seema and her family paid no attention to it and on Sunday, 22-year-old athlete Seema took part in sports at the Bambolim Stadium here. She proved her talent by winning the gold medal in the women’s 10,000 meter race in the 37th National Games.
Recalling the challenges she faced in her early years, Seema said, “When I started athletics, the conservative people of the village opposed it because I should not go out of the village. But my late father supported me.
Things became worse when his father passed away in 2012, leaving behind a family of six siblings, including three sisters. Seema is the youngest and all her siblings helped her a lot to fulfill her passion of running.
Seema was selected to train under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) scheme in Dharamshala in 2015 and this further enhanced her career at national competitions. On the basis of his better performance, he was selected for Khelo India in 2018 and then he started getting a monthly scholarship of Rs 10,000. “It was a huge support for me,” he said.
This helped Seema get a job in banking in Himachal Pradesh under sports quota and then she also got financial help to focus on her sports. At the senior level, Seema has so far participated in four competitions and has won gold medal in three of them and silver medal in one.
But more than the medal, Seema is happy that her success has changed the thinking of her villagers and now more and more people of the village are sending their girls to sports.
“Things changed when I started winning medals at the junior national level,” he said. The girls of my village also started playing sports. Now they also go to nearby cities for their further studies.
Seema now wants to prove herself at the international level and make a place in the Indian team and to achieve this goal, she wants to work on physical fitness.
He said, “I need to remain completely fit to perform better next year.”
Hindustan News / Sunil / Prabhat
