Dhanbad based international woman footballer Sangeeta Soren, who was compelled to work at a brick kiln during the pandemic, has received financial support from the Congress as Baghmara based state secretary Ranvijay Singh on Sunday handed her a cheque of Rs 51,000.

The sports authority of Jharkhand had earlier provided her with financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh.

Sangeeta represented India in 2018 and 2019 at Thailand and Bhutan respectively as part of the Indian Under-18 Women’s team.

She was also compelled to work a brick kiln near her native village at Bansmuri to support the family as her father Dube Soren is visually challenged and has hearing impairment while her brother Babuchand Soren struggles to secure a daily income at the construction sites where he works as a labourer.

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Ranvijay Singh said, “Though the government has already provided a financial assistance worth Rs 1 lakh to Sangeeta during the last month itself but I also handed over a cheque worth Rs 51,000 as her family due to lack of a definite source of income is passing through a difficult time.”

“I also decided to bear the cost of all her future sporting ventures, be it travel expense to go for selection trial of girls senior team or shoes or other dress requirement and also training cost if any,” said Singh who also met her family members, including her father Dube Soren and brother Babuchand Soren.

“Providing any small employment to her will affect her sporting career as she will not be able to do justice to her football career while performing the obligation of any small job so we have rather decided to adopt her whereby besides meeting her sporting expenses we will also assure her livelihood expenses if any,” said Singh.

“Yes indeed the financial assistance provided by the government earlier as well as by Ranvijay Sir today and also some food grain support provided by other organisations and individuals provided some relief to me and my family,” said 20-year-old Sangeeta Soren.

“My primary focus at present is to continue practice and get selected for the senior Indian Women Football team as and when the selection trial is held after the improvement in Covid situation as I want to bring more glory to our country,” said Sangeeta.