Struggling Field Players: Woman Footballer Who Represented India Internationally Now A Food Delivery Agent

Sportspeople in the country receive praise on one side, and on the other hand, they struggle to make ends meet due to the meagre social security the field offers. Many players in the country have seen a bleak future once their tournaments and matches conclude. For this reason, pursuing a career in sports continues to be a challenge for many promising stars. Several times they lack the facilities to even practise for upcoming games, and for some others, they are left with no other option but to take up a job that sustains them. A tweet about one such athlete who turned into a gig worker to earn her bread is now going viral for highlighting the plight of sportspeople in the country.

Meet Poulami Adhikary

Poulami Adhikary is a name familiar among football enthusiasts as a promising youngster who represented India in multiple international matches. Recently, a lot more people got familiar with the name after a Twitter video by Sanjukta Choudhary went viral. The video shared by the user had Poulami talking about her plight from the international fields to the food delivery platform. The native from West Bengal has represented India in football at the U-16 level and has travelled to UK, Germany, and Sri Lanka for the national team.

Today the promising player works as a food delivery agent who earns ₹300-400 a day to make ends meet. Poulami lost her mother as an infant and worked to support her family, which survives on a meagre income earned by her father. The 24-year-old is also a third-year undergraduate student at Charuchandra College and works the night shift to take home a supplement income. Multiple media houses have now picked the story to throw light on the plight of the sportsperson while she continues to struggle to hold on to her football dreams amidst the financial woes.

Reactions To The Post

Since being shared, the video has garnered over 1,65,000 views, 2,220 likes, and 870 retweets. The clip also brought in reactions from netizens who sympathised with the way talented sportspeople in the country are treated. A user named Amitabha Saha wrote, "Thanks for bringing it up. Let's hope the plight of such sportspeople is discussed in national media." Another user added to this by saying, "These people should be treated with dignity and respect and provided with jobs!" With plenty of cases rising in regard to star athletes being forced to take up gig work to support their families, netizens are now urging the government to look into extending aid and quotas to the country's talents.

Yet another social media user commented, "These people are left high and dry by the govt, but cricketers like Rishab Pant, already a rich man, are promised full medical reimbursement after an accident entirely of his own making."

This comment stirred up further debate regarding how the emergence of professional leagues in various sports disciplines in the country still does not fill the disparity faced by male and female athletes. It also reflected on the biases and benefits that are often extended to the upliftment of specific sports in the country that brings in increased Television Rating Points (TRPs). Poulami's story is just yet another grim reminder of the distressing plight of sportspeople in the country.

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