Locked-down former special athlete from Jharkhand has got moving again, thanks to officials of Special Olympics Bharat from two states.
Special Olympics Bharat (Gujarat) helped Jamshedpur’s former special athlete Sanjeev Kumar Das to finally leave for New Delhi on Tuesday evening after remaining stuck in Baroda, Gujarat, since the novel coronavirus-induced nationwide lockdown was first imposed across the country on March 25.
Intellectually impaired Das had represented India’s handball squad in the Special Olympics International World Summer Games held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2003, and later worked as a coach in the state.
Das boarded a special train at Sabarmati station near Ahmedabad for Delhi on Tuesday evening.
The former special athlete, who worked with Sodexo Facilities Management Services at Baroda was anxious to meet his pregnant wife Vibha who is staying with her mother in Delhi.
Special Olympics Jharkhand assistant area director Satbir Singh Sahota, who was in the loop throughout, thanked Special Olympics Gujarat president D.G. Choudhary for helping Das get a special train ticket and necessary medical documents to enable the latter travel to Delhi.
“He was in regular touch with me since the lockdown and kept on requesting me to make some arrangements to go to Delhi to meet his wife,” Sahota said.
Sahota added that the lockdown, now in its fourth phase to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, made making arrangements tough.
“The lockdown has made mobility difficult for everyone. As Das is intellectually impaired, we all wanted his journey to Delhi to be smooth and without problems. But getting a permit to Delhi for Das was difficult for me to arrange from Jamshedpur. Finally, I approached Choudhary, who helped special the athlete,” Sahota said.
Sahota said that Das was working in Baroda since December last year.
“His life was finally looking up with a steady job. But unfortunately, Covid-19 happened and his employers also shut down the business due to the nationwide lockdown,” Sahota said.
Earlier, Das worked on part-time basis in some organisations at Surat, Bhavnagar and Ahmedabad but had to return to Jamshedpur a couple of years back due to some unrest in the western state.
“He had been looking for a job in Jamshedpur since then but was not able to get suitable employment according to his ability, till the Sodexo opening came up in Baroda in December last year,” Sahota said. “It’s very unfortunate that Covid-19 happened at a time he was finally settled.”
Das had been a good handballer known for his talent, speed, swiftness and goal-scoring abilities.
In 2003, he had been part of the national squad which won the bronze at Dublin.
Then, Das had assisted as a coach for Jharkhand’s special handball athletes who participated in the next edition of World Summer Games held at Shanghai, China, in 2007. The Indian special handball team had again claimed bronze in that event.