Everyone back home feels special badminton player Prashant Kumar Sinha deserves a government job.
Heart-warming reactions were abound in Jamshedpur, where Prashant has grown up, the day a report about him knocking on Delhi's power corridors for a job appeared in The Telegraph (A champ begs for work in Lutyens bungalows, July 22).
Prashant, 32, who suffers from cerebral palsy and deformity of bones, and yet moves like a wind on court or so his admirers say, hasn't yet got a job despite winning seven gold, six silvers and 13 bronze medals for undivided Bihar and later Jharkhand since 1998 in state and national competitions.
Contacted, Prashant's 76-year-old maternal grandfather Braj Nandan Sinha in Birsanagar, a retired Tata Motors employee, said he was scared about the boy's future. "Look, I am of advanced years and my daughter Shobha Sinha is a widow. Prashant's father Shailendra Kumar Sinha, an advocate in Biharsharif court, Bihar, died many years ago. My daughter, a homemaker, is dependent on me. What will happen once I am gone?" he told this correspondent on Friday.
The old man added that Prashant was "close to many BJP leaders and had campaigned for Raghubar Das in Birsanagar during the 2014 Assembly polls".
"The boy is always at Sonari Aerodrome to welcome chief minister Raghubar Das ji and is very popular with district BJP leaders. Yet, he failed to land a job. The only thing he got was Rs 1 lakh from state sports minister Amar Kumar Bauri," Sinha said.
Sita Laxmi, the principal of Asha Kiran, a school for the intellectually impaired in Telco where Prashant studied, was full of praise over his academic and sporting credentials.
"He has a higher intelligence level and can handle office jobs with dexterity and smartness," she said. "True, he walks and speaks with difficulty due to bone deformity and cerebral palsy. But, he has done computer and typewriting courses and studied up to plus two in commerce, and can easily handle backend jobs," the principal stressed.
Prashant paints well too, chipped in principal Mita Ganguly of School of Hope, another institution for special children in Northern Town, where the youth once used to learn how to draw. "Obviously, he was good in sports. But I remember he used to paint well," Ganguly remembered.
Assistant area director of Special Olympics Jharkhand, Satbir Singh Sahota said Prashant certainly deserved a job under Persons with Disabilities Act 1995.
"Prashant should get a job under the 3 per cent reservation quota for the disabled under the Act. He has all the credentials," said Sahota, an international cyclist himself.
Contacted, newly appointed BJP district president Dinesh Kumar Sahu acknowledged Prashant's talents. "I know him personally. Sports minister Amar Kumar Bauri has given him Rs 1 lakh and I would try my best to see he gets a job," Sahu promised.
Prashant will return from Delhi on Monday.
Will you offer Prashant a job? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com
