Five Jharkhand women hockey players selected for US sports & cultural exchange programme

The players - Pundi Saru and Juhi Kumari from Khunti district, Priyanka Kumari from Gumla and Henrita Toppo and Purnima Neti from Simdega district were scheduled to go for the exchange programme in 2020 but the event was postponed in view of Covid-19 pandemic. "Five top performers of the second edition of the East India Women's Hockey and Leadership camp which wrapped up on February 1, 2020, will participate in a three-week sports and cultural exchange immersion programme in the US designed by Middlebury from June 24-July 13, 2022," a statement from US Consulate, Kolkata said.

Pundi Saru, daughter of a labourer recently completed her 10th standard while Juhi Kumari had a difficult childhood with her father being an alcoholic and mother working as a daily wage earner. Priyanka Kumari's father being a patient of paralysis, the entire responsibility to sustain livelihood for the family fell on her mother's shoulder. Priyanka's passion for the sport led her to make a hockey stick out of a bamboo stick, with the help of which she practiced hard. Henrita Toppo from Simdega too faced much difficulty as her mother works as a labourer to sustain livelihood while Purnima Neti, also from the same district comes from a poor financial background. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who interacted with the young hockey players selected for a three-week talent exchange programme in Middlebury College, in Vermont, USA felicitated them. The US Consulate Kolkata in partnership with NGO Shakti Vahini, and with the support of Jharkhand Hockey Federation, South-Eastern Railway, Jharkhand Police, and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs (ECA) had launched the East India Hockey Project in 2018 to promote empowerment and foster