In our country, more often than not we fail in providing poor children with proper sports facilities. Certainly, children from poor economic background have to work for earning two square meals a day. In this scenario, formal sports amenities remain a dream for such children. Yet, there is no denying the fact that there are children still who have sportive talents which are groomed in dirty streets around the twilight every day. Without formal coach and sports shoes, such kids go on playing sports to their utmost satisfaction and many a times excelling at them.
The recent example to this is a flower selling girl, R. Hepsiba, who is just back from Brazil after winning as many as three medals, one is gold in it, and all in the field of athletics. Sixteen years old, Hepsiba, represented India in the World Street Child Games which was held a week ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Hindu writes about her, “When Hepsiba runs, it is as if she can fly with the wind and skip through the air. Some say she picked up the skill on the streets where she lived. But her coach believes she is a natural sprinter”.
Hepsiba hails from Chennai and lives with her mother and three siblings. Her father passed away when she was just three years old. Hepsiba has already participated in many local and district level competitions. An NGO, Karunalaya, spotted her talent and that is how she landed this huge opportunity to represent India at international level.
Hepsiba is not the only street talent, there are many like her. What we need to do is to spot them and groom them in the atmosphere their talents require. And there will be no dearth of laurels and accolades for the country.
Back to Hepsiba, we congratulate her and wish her all success along the way!
