After spending two years in wilderness because of to doping suspension, athlete Juana Murmu is helping youngster in her poverty struck village in Odisha to take up sports but rues lack of basic facilities in the area.
"I am trying to motivate youngsters in the village so that they can come out from the poverty through sports but athletics kits are very costly and hardly anyone can afford them," Murmu said.
The 400m relay racer, who was suspended for failing a dope test in 2011, returned to the athletic track only during the recently-concluded Open National Athletic Championship here.
Murmu hails from a backward tribal hamlet in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district where people still demand basic amenities.
"My father is a farmer. We didn't even have BPL card. Even now we borrow electricity from a neighbour," she said.
Pursuing her graduation through distance education in Sikkim, Murmu has set her eyes on 2016 Olympics and stays away from home for better practicing facilities.
"If I stay at home, I can't practice due to lack of grassy grounds in the rocky village, which does not have a gym. Even our house has borrowed electricity from our neighbour. So I stay in Delhi, Dehradun and Patiala most of the year," she added.
Coming from a farming background and third among five siblings, Murmu said her mother still walks to a distance to fetch water as there is no piped water facility at home.
"There are only three hand pumps and one well for sixty families in our village. My mother goes a couple of kilometre to fetch water," she added.
