As many as 15 Alumni of State Government Sports Hostels have been inducted as Sports Change Leaders by Tata Strive, a skill development initiative of Tata Trusts, to train the students from 17 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in Odisha. This was revealed by the Department of Sports & Youth Services (DSYS), Government of Odisha in its social media handles today.

An initiative called, Lets Play ITIs, was launched in the presence of Odisha Sports Minister Tusharkanti Behera, Skilled Odisha Chairman Subroto Bagchi and DSYS Secretary R Vineel Krishna.

The one-of-its-kind initiative, Lets Play ITIs is a collaboration between DSYS, Directorate of Technical Education & Training (DTET) Odisha and Skill Development & Technical Education Department (SDTE) Odisha. Anita Rajan, CEO, Tata Strive, described it as unique partnership between DSYS, DTET, and SDTE.

According to DSYS, this programme will focus on holistic growth of body-mind-inner self of the ITI learners. Former inmates from the State Sports Hostels will train the students of ITIs to make them more employable.

However, DSYS disclosed names of only three former Sports Hostel inmates, who have been employed by Tata Strive. They are: Sukadev Mohanty, Ankit Barla and Sk Salim Ahemad. Jajpur athlete Sukadev Mohanty has been posted at Bhawanipatna.

Barla, a former National level basketball player from Sundargarh, left Sports Hostel in 2021. Salim Ahemad is from Jajpur and he has been posted at Baripada ITI. According to other sources, 13 former Sports Hostel trainees have been recruited by Tata Strive.

Other 10 are: Raman Malha (Sundargarh), Sanjay Lakra (Rajgangpur), Ezajuddin Khan (Nimapada), Sabar Gochhayat (Berhampur), Sarat Nayak (Berhampur), Manoj Naik (Rayagada), Bijay Mangaraj (Bhubaneswar), Rakesh Kumar Behera (Bhubaneswar), Tapan Behera (Cuttack) and Satyabrata Pradhan (Cuttack).
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PHOTO: Former Sports Hostel inmates at a photo shoot with Odisha Sports Minister, Skilled Odisha Chairman, DSYS Secretary and Tata Strive CEO after being employed as Sports Change Leaders on 10 May 2022.