How exactly do Kabaddi players get a job in railways?

–  Sharang Dhomse

At the national level, if we talk about strong teams within India, Railways tops the list without any doubt. Both the men’s and women’s teams of Railways have dominated the national competitions for many years. Their women’s team has won the Senior National for record 31 years consecutively. No wonder the Indian team always sees more players from Indian Railways.
The most recent examples are Pawan Sehrawat, Ravinder Pahal, Vikas Kandola and Sunil-Parvesh. The Railways team performs so consistently because the Railway offers job opportunities to the best players from different states of the country from their sports quota. This gives financial stability to the kabaddi players who come mainly from a modest background. Besides this, many facilities are provided to these players by the railways. For example, if a player wins a gold medal in a national or international competition, he/she gets 330 days of paid leave in a year. Facilities like these allow players to pay more attention to their game and training. Naturally, all the best players want to get a job in the railways.

But how do these kabaddi players get jobs in the railways? What is the process to get it? Let’s learn from this article.

A special ‘Railway Sports Promotion Board’ has been set up to provide jobs to the players in the railways. The board controls the entire process of hiring from the sports quota. There are two ways for players to get a job. One is ‘Talent Scouting’ and the other is Selection through Open Advertisement.

It is decided how many kabaddi players to select from the sports quota every year. 60% of the players are selected through Talent Scouting while the remaining 40% are selected through open advertisement. Let us now learn in detail about these two processes.

1) Talent Scouting:

– Railways invite players who have won medals in national competitions in the last two years or have excelled in various competitions. A player can also apply for it himself, of course, the railways decide whether to accept it or not.

– Only players in the age group of 18-25 are given job opportunities through this. Of course, if the player has an excellent track record, this age limit can also be waived.

– The player must have secured the preset educational qualification. It can also be discounted for an excellent performance. However, it is mandatory to obtain this educational qualification within 4 years after appointment.

– Players are selected through ‘trial’. For this, trial committees are set up at the divisional level through different zones of the railways.

– The trial committee has 4 to 5 members with playing experience. If 4 members are from Railways then a Kabaddi expert from outside Railways is appointed if required.

– At the time of trial, each member of the committee gives the player a ‘fit’ or ‘not fit’ remark. For this, the member gives the player a score out of 40 based on his playing skills, physical fitness and observations of the members during the trial. A player who scores 25 and above out of 40 is declared ‘fit’. Of course, only ‘fit’ players are considered for appointment.

– In addition, the members of the trial committee give the player a score out of 100. These 100 marks are divided as follows.

Player’s performance till date: 50 marks

Kabaddi skills, physical fitness and observations of members during trials: 40 marks

Educational Qualification: 5 Marks

General Intelligence, Personality Test and Mental Preparation: 5 Marks

– A minimum of 60 marks is required to be eligible for the job.

– After giving marks to all the players, the merit list is published and accordingly, eligible players are selected for the job. A player who is younger in age is selected if two players have the same score.

2) Recruitment through open advertisement:

– Athletes who do not get the opportunity through Talent Scouting have this option to get a job.

– Advertisement is issued by Railways for such recruitment. This advertisement is published in various newspapers and websites of Railway Zones and applications are invited.

– All the conditions for recruitment, eligibility, age limit and the method of trials are generally the same as the ‘Talent Scouting’ method.

Some famous players from Maharashtra who played in the Railway team or are currently playing:

Abhilasha Mhatre
Sonali Shingte
Shrikant Jadhav
Neha Ghadge
Viraj Landage
Meenal Jadhav
Rekha Sawant
Apeksha Takle
Raksha Narkar
Aamir Dhumal