In July last year, senior constable Satinder Singh was called to the office of the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Muktsar district and told to go to Malaut and Rupana villages, around 50 km from the town, and teach volleyball to children. Singh says he was pleasantly surprised at the assignment, but worried.
Though a national volleyball player who had joined the Punjab Police nine years ago in the sports quota, Singh’s volleyball skills had gone rusty after years of routine policing duties at Muktsar’s police lines. But all he needed was to take his position behind the volleyball nets for him to get back into the sport. Today, he trains around a hundred children in volleyball, cricket and football in the two villages.
The policemen coach children between the ages of 10 and 18, with both morning and evening classes for volleyball, kabaddi, basketball, football, athletics and cricket. Since the free coaching programme was launched in July last year, over 700 children have been trained by the seven coaches, of whom nearly 10 children have played till the national level while many have gone on to play for the state.
Read more of this in a report by Raakhi Jagga published in The Indian Express... (Link given below)
