National-Level Shooter Pushpa Gupta Forced to Sell Noodles to Earn Living
Pushpa Gupta, national-level shooter from Gujarat, won several medals but is now forced to use those to attract customers to her stall. She was earlier supported by the National Cadet Corps, which stopped a year back.
For Indian sportspersons, off-the-field challenges often tend to be bigger than the ones on it. Same is the case with national-level shooter Pushpa Gupta, who sells noodles in a roadside stall in Vadodara to earn a living. (Read more sports stories here)
The 21-year-old Pushpa, who has represented Gujarat in National Championships, has been forced to bid adieu to her passion due to lack of funds. Shooting is an expensive sport considering the high price of the guns and ammunition, and Pushpa says that she doesn't have the means to pursue it.
Pushpa got little help from the government as she now uses her medals in shooting for attracting customers to her food cart. Numerous medals can be seen hanging from the roadside stall, which she runs with father Dinesh Kumar. ÂÂ
The young shooter was earlier part of the National Cadet Corps and took up the sports while studying in college. ÂÂ
"I joined college in 2013 and it was there that I discovered that I have skills in shooting. I joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and it supported me financially. I represented Gujarat in the sport as well. Then I started getting interest in the sport," Pushpa told ANI.
But after she completed her college, Pushpa could no longer get NCC's support and discontinued shooting.
"After the support from NCC ended, my father told me to discontinue the sport and start some business in order to earn living. Since then we have been selling noodles on this lorry and now it has over been one year," she added.
Pushpa added that it has been more than a year since she touched a rifle. Her father, Dinesh Kumar, is more frustrated. According to him, though Prime Minister Narendra Modi often speaks about women empowerment but as far as his daughter was concerned, there has been no sign of it.
"Ever since Modi Ji has become the Prime Minister, there has been a huge stress on women empowerment. But we have not received any benefit from it as of now. It is just there on the televisions and the newspapers," he said.
"Presently, we have a woman Member of Parliament (Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt) in the area we are living in. The Chief Minister of the state (Anandiben Patel) is also a woman. If we would have received anything from the sports authority or from the government, then she would not be selling noodles on the streets and would have brought honour for the nation in the field of sports."
Shooting is a major sport in India now. Apart from Abhinav Bindra, who is India's only individual Olympics gold medallist, there are three other shooters who have won medals at the quadrennial mega-event.
The funding and investment in shooting has also increased over the years, but how far has the sports ministry and other authorities been successful to touch the grassroot-level can be gauged from Pushpa's case.