In the past four decades, Jharkhand has emerged as a hub for women’s hockey. At present, after Haryana, Jharkhand has the maximum number of players in the Indian team and all of them are tribal girls from impoverished backgrounds. Many women hockey players from Simdega district and learnt hockey on the Kurangagudi ground.
Father Benedict Kujur, 53 joined the school at Kurangagudi in 2003 as a primary school teacher. He saw a natural inclination for hockey. He went to every child’s house, met their parents and told them to encourage their children to pick up the stick. He made a rule that children will not be allowed to enter school without their hockey sticks.
Deepika Soreng , who plays as a forward, was the top goal-scorer in the 2024 Hockey World Cup—her debut tournament in the senior category—and helped the team reach the finals. In the 2023 junior Asia Cup, she played an important role in securing the gold medal for the team by scoring six goals in seven matches. She aspires to represent India in the Olympics. When she started playing, the family did not have money to buy a hockey stick. “My elder brother made a hockey stick from bamboo. I started playing with that,” remembers Soreng. Her mother Firisca Soreng worked as a labourer for nine years so that her daughter could become a famous hockey player.
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Editor: Divya
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Father Benedict Kujur, 53 joined the school at Kurangagudi in 2003 as a primary school teacher. He saw a natural inclination for hockey. He went to every child’s house, met their parents and told them to encourage their children to pick up the stick. He made a rule that children will not be allowed to enter school without their hockey sticks.
Deepika Soreng , who plays as a forward, was the top goal-scorer in the 2024 Hockey World Cup—her debut tournament in the senior category—and helped the team reach the finals. In the 2023 junior Asia Cup, she played an important role in securing the gold medal for the team by scoring six goals in seven matches. She aspires to represent India in the Olympics. When she started playing, the family did not have money to buy a hockey stick. “My elder brother made a hockey stick from bamboo. I started playing with that,” remembers Soreng. Her mother Firisca Soreng worked as a labourer for nine years so that her daughter could become a famous hockey player.
Camera & Reporter: Asghar Khan
Editor: Divya
Follow us:
Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/
X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia
Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine
Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia
#Hockey #HockeyIndia #Jharkhand #WomenHockey #WomenHockeyTeam #Simdega #AsiaCup #HockeyWorldCup
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SportsTranscript
00:00I have decided that if the camp continues, I will go to Olympics.
00:06Sembar Toli is just 25 km from the Simdega district and nearly 200 from Raji.
00:13But here, distance is not measured in kilometers.
00:17It is measured in struggle, in persistence, in quiet determination of young girls holding hockey sticks.
00:25This village, without proper roads or drinking water, has produced some of India's finest women hockey players.
00:33And among them is Deepika Soren.
00:35My name is Deepika Soren.
00:37I am a member of the Indian team.
00:39I didn't know how to get here.
00:42But when I started playing hockey, my father used to show me the matches.
00:46He used to show me how the international players play, what they do.
00:49He was a smoker.
00:51He used to think that one day I will also play like that.
00:54So that was my thought.
00:56I didn't know when I reached here, while practicing.
00:59My mother's role is that if she doesn't go out, I don't reach here today.
01:04Or if I didn't have money to go out, she used to earn outside and gave me a salary.
01:11So I am here like her.
01:14Deepika's journey from a mud house to the international hockey stage is built on her mother's sacrifices.
01:20For 9 years, Firiska Soren worked as a labourer, migrating to Odisha, carrying heavy loads so her daughter could play.
01:29I worked as a doctor and educated her.
01:33When she was selected, I thought how to give her money.
01:37She was very young.
01:40Her father died at the same time.
01:43So I thought how to educate my children.
01:46My father knew how poor I was.
01:53So I thought I will go out.
01:56I was 9 years old.
01:58When we used to go to the camp for the first time,
02:01we had to go for the first time.
02:03The price of the flight was not so high that we could reach in 2000-3000 rupees.
02:08If we wanted to go tomorrow, we had to go today.
02:12It was difficult to get 15,000-16,000 rupees.
02:16At that time, my mother had taken a loan from someone.
02:20But they didn't tell me.
02:22One of the early believers was father Benedict Khojur.
02:25A teacher at the Kurungagudi school, he made a rule.
02:28No stick, no school.
02:30If students did not bring hockey stick, they were sent home.
02:33If you don't bring hockey stick, you don't have to go to school.
02:36That's why I used to bring it.
02:38And I started playing slowly.
02:40At that time, we didn't have so much money to buy a hockey stick.
02:43So my brother made a hockey stick for me.
02:48I used to practice with him.
02:50If father Benedict Khojur didn't stop me from going to school,
02:54that if I don't bring hockey stick, I won't be able to go to school.
02:57Maybe I wouldn't have been able to reach here.
02:59Bamboo sticks turned into real hockey sticks.
03:01Small school matches led to national selections.
03:05In 2023, Deepika scored 6 goals in 7 matches in the Junior Asia Cup,
03:10helping India secure a gold.
03:13In 2024, she debuted for the senior team at the Women's Hockey World Cup.
03:18Her next dream, the Olympic glory.
03:21With her first paycheck, Deepika told her mother to stop working as a labourer.
03:25The house, which once seemed impossible, is nearly complete.
03:29When she went to work, she told me that she would never live in a house again.
03:37It was her dream.
03:39I remember that she told me that.
03:41So I want to fulfill her dream.
03:45This is not just Deepika's story.
03:47It is the story of women who refuse to be defined by their circumstances.
03:51Of mothers who labour so their daughters can dream.
03:54Of girls who pick up hockey sticks and carve a path.
03:59When none existed.
04:00When the pain of the past is forgotten, it doesn't feel good.