[India] Plagued by poverty, champion rower seeks job

from The New Kerala

By Jatindra Dash, Bhubaneswar: Hit by poverty, a woman champion rower from Orissa who has won several national tournaments is desperately looking for a job.

Pravasini Dwivedy, 20, says she wants employment to bail out her family of five, of which only one - one of her brothers - is employed but earning just Rs.700 a month as a temple priest.

A resident of Ratadiakhandasahi village in Kendrapada district, 110 km from here, the young woman has won as many as 25 medals including 18 gold in national and international rowing competitions since 2001.

Dwivedy is now a final year college student who managed to meet her educational and training expenses with a Rs.1,200 a month stipend from the government.

"My father died six years ago leaving us to fight poverty. We don't have any source of income. We have only two acres of farm land and whatever we get from there is inadequate for survival," Dwivedy told IANS.

"My elder brother is a priest and earns Rs.700 a month. Our thatched house is on the verge of collapse but due to paucity of funds it is yet to be repaired," she said.

"I urgently want a job to support my family. If I don't get one, it may hinder my faith in sports," said Dwivedy, who rows a canoe for four to five hours at a sports hostel in Cuttack.

In 2001, she represented Orissa in the 22nd National Rowing Championship and won the gold in 2,000 metres competition.

She clinched the gold medal in 1,000 metres single scull rowing competition the next year at Pune.

She won two bronze medals in the single scull and double scull events in Hong Kong.

Again in a national meet at Chandigarh, Dwidevi won two gold medals. She also claimed the gold at the East India Rowing Championship in 2005. Another gold medal came her way at the Asian Rowing Championship in Hyderabad.