So, there have been many stories about Champions winning gold and silver for India, bringing accolades from around the globe. But do we hear about the apathy cases that are prevalent even after bringing nobles, possibly the answer is YES.
This is one such grimy story of a state level boxer Kamal Kumar spending his life as garbage collector.During the 90’s he won 3 gold medals in the Uttar Pradesh State Boxing Championships, along with a bronze medal too, and now he is denied even a 4th class job and majorly the reason is his caste – DALIT. This may not astonish most of us because this has become quite a normal thing. Cmon’ lets agree there are not many sports in India that are valued as much as Cricket. Bitter but truth.
So, here is Kamal Kumar Valmiki, trying to meet his ends meet and obviously, getting his talent wasted. Rather collecting waste.
“I won three district-level gold medals besides a bronze in Uttar Pradesh State Boxing Championships. But I could not make it big as I used to struggle when it came to controlling my anger,I wanted to become a coach but could not as I was financially constrained. So I decided to take up these jobs to support me and my family,” he added.
“I hope the government could provide me a small loan with which I would do something of my own and support my family,”said.
What we as a nation need to realize is there are many more Kamal Kumar who are dying and wishes to make India proud again but are we listening.