International-level karate player working as labourer in paddy fields in Punjab's Mansa

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, June 9

Hardeep Kaur, an international-level karate player from the region is fighting poverty and is forced to work as a labourer in this scorching heat to transplant paddy in the field in her village Gurne Kalan in Mansa district.

The government had promised to give her a job but even after four years the promise remains unfulfilled.

While talking to The Tribune, Hardeep Kaur said she has made a name for her district and Punjab by winning 20 medals in karate championships at Malaysia and national games at Goa and other school-level games.

She recalls that when she returned after winning the gold medal in karate championship at Malaysia, then Sports Minister Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi had met her when he visited her area and announced a government job for her but now four years have gone by, but the promise remains unfulfilled.

“My father works as a labourer and I am studying DPED in Patiala and to support my studies and parents, I do domestic work and now doing labour work in fields to transplant paddy in our village,” she said.

Hardeep also appeals to the state government to provide her some help as she even visited Chandigarh four times to take up her job issue, but she failed to get any success.

Hardeep Kaur’ father Naib Singh and mother Sukhwinder Kaur said, “Our economic condition is quite bad and we manage to earn two square meals a day by working as labourers in fields. Even our daughter despite being a sportsperson is forced to work in fields as a labourer. We demand that our daughter should be given a job or financial help at the earliest.”

Harjit Singh, a farmer on whose fields Hardeep is working, said, “She has brought laurels to the state and country, so the state government under ghar-ghar rozgar scheme should provide her a job, so that she is able to live her life comfortably.”