3rd suicide in four months alarms shooting fraternity

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 9

A young pistol shooter’s death by suicide early on Thursday morning has rocked the shooting community. Khushseerat Kaur Sandhu, who made her junior India debut at the Junior World Championships in Peru in October, was apparently depressed with her low scores at the shooting Nationals.

Khushseerat is the third shooter from Punjab to commit suicide in four months. In October, Hunardeep Singh Sohal, who was a state-level shooter, had ended his life because an injury impacted his shooting career. In September, Mohali’s Namanveer Singh Brar, who had won a bronze medal at the World University Games, had ended his life as well.

The rise in such cases has the shooting community alarmed. Former rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra, India’s first individual gold medal winner at the Olympics, has once again called for a structure where the mental health of the athletes should be assessed.

“Three suicides is a red flag as something is clearly not right,” Bindra said. “But at the same time we cannot blame it on sports as each case may be different. But it is enough for organisations to act responsibly and put structures in play so that the athletes get all the support,” he added.

As part of the IOC Mental Health Working Group, Bindra wants the IOC Mental Health Tool Kit to be adopted by the administrators to deal with the issues faced by many athletes.

“The athletes’ physical wellness is assessed every year but that is not the case when it comes to the mental wellbeing. The Toolkit should be adopted as it helps ascertain if there are any warning signs so that such incidents perhaps are avoided,” Bindra said.

‘Everyone has to

be responsible’

Former shooter and India rifle coach Suma Shirur, who also runs an academy in Mumbai, says the onus is on everyone to see to it that the young shooters get all the help. “Covid has taken a toll on us, including the teenagers,” Suma said. “At this age they are very vulnerable as they are searching for their identity and the only way they do it is by interacting with their friends and peers. But Covid forced them indoors and now many are struggling,” Suma added.

“As a rule we have employed a psychologist in our academy as you are not able to see how an athlete is struggling mentally. This was also done as we had to deal with issues that were not related to the sport. But we can’t blame everything on a federation or SAI as every coach or a parent as adults have to deal with this issue and try to help these kids rather than judging them,” Suma added.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the sport’s governing body in the country, has said that they expect the coaches and the peer groups to be more vigilant. “We are shocked by the incident. NRAI will try to provide anything and everything needed to address the mental wellbeing of the shooters. At the same time I would like the coaches and parents to be a little vigilant and make them understand how to deal with pressures of the sport,” NRAI secretary general K Sultan Singh said.