Even as the chief minister’s office instructed district officials to help the handball player out of her predicament, she is getting job offers from various quarters.
By R AKHILESHWARI
DH News Service, HYDERABAD
The national handball player R Sridevi who was forced by her poverty to become a domestic servant in her hometown Warangal to support her family of aged parents and a younger brother, sees a ray of hope with the media highlighting her plight.
While private organisations have offered her jobs and scholarships, the wheels of bureaucracy of the Warangal district administration are moving rather slowly. The district sports development officer is in the process of submitting a report on Sridevi’s circumstances on instructions from the CM’s office. At the first sight of hope Sridevi has decided to quit her job in two houses that she was working as a domestic servant. Her employers did not know her achievements as captain of the state team and as a national player.
The first to get off the block in offering help to Sridevi was the Centre for Action Research and People’s Development, an NGO working in Medak district with child labourers. Its secretary M Bharat Bhushan offered a job to her or Rs 3,000 a month for a year.
Sridevi preferred to remain in Warangal and pursue her distance degree (B Com course) while taking care of her aged parents with the money being offered. “Sridevi’s plight is pathetic,” said Mr Bhushan to DHNS. “In the first place there are so few players from rural areas and then she is a national player and a woman to top it all,” he said.
The DVR Engineering College near Hyderabad too has offered a job to Sridevi who is tempted by the offer as the college has promised her freedom to continue with her passion, playing handball. “I am grateful to the media and the people for their offers. I would like a job that would give me an opportunity to continue my love for the game,” she told DHNS indicating she might consider the engineering college’s offer. District Collector N Siva Sankar said the district administration was exploring options in which Sridevi and her family could be helped.
Deccan Herald, February 15, 2004
http://www.deccanherald.com/archives/feb152004/n8.asp
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