Despite several odds, Kunja Rajitha, an Adivasi girl from a remote village in Andhra Pradesh's Alluri district, has recently won gold medal in the 400 metre sprint event at the Khelo India Youth Games 2022 held in Haryana.
According to a report in The New Indian Express, it took only 56.07 seconds for her to finish the event.
But this is not the first time the 19-year-old has achieved a feat like this. In 2019, she had won second prize for an event at the Khelo India Games. However, the youngster has had to brave many odds to emerge as a national-level athlete.
'Gurus Helped Me Win Medals, Received No Support From Govt': Rajitha
A few years ago, Rajitha's parents Maraiah and Bhadramma migrated to Alluri district's Ramachandrapuram village from conflict-hit pockets of Chhattisgarh and began collecting and selling firewood for a living. They struggled to make ends meet, but still ensured that Rajitha and her three siblings went to school.
The four children, however, had to help their parents in collecting firewood and then walk everyday to reach Leads School in Chintur block, which was 10 km away from their hamlet.
The couple could not take up any other job as they did not have any government ID cards and were also not included in Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.
After Class 8, Rajitha moved to a government residential school in Nellore to continue her education. The teachers there motivated her to pursue athletics which made her dabble in the field and emerge victorious.
Rajitha said that she wouldn't have won the medals without the help of her trainers.
"No government help came to us. My parents who had to migrate from Chhattissgarh are still struggling to make both ends meet. My village, situated in a remote corner in Kunavaram mandal, has no road access. Without the help of my gurus, I wouldn’t have won these medals. How do you expect a poor tribal girl from a dense forested area to participate at Khelo India if there was no support from my trainers?" she said, as per The New Indian Express.
(With inputs from The New Indian Express.)
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