Pratima, who was living her dream of playing for India through students like Salima, passes away at 44

Time of India

3 days ago

Gumla/Kolkata: Pratima Barwa, the childhood coach of Indian women's team captain Salima Tete and many of current stars like Sangita Kumari, Beauty Dungdung and Deepika Soreng, passed away on Sunday.
She was just 44 years old.
A resident of Tapkara Kocha village in Torpa block of Khunti district, Barwa was undergoing treatment at Paras hospital in Dhurwa, Ranchi, from Thursday where she died of brain haemorrhage at 8:27am on Sunday.
Barwa started playing hockey in her childhood but had to stop playing because of an injury. However, that didn't deter her love affair with the game as she shifted to coaching early on. It was at the Residential Girls' Hockey Training Centre in Simdega that she started imparting her knowledge and trained numerous players for 15 years from 2008 to 2024.
While seeing her pupils star for the country brought her immense happiness, the proudest moment of her coaching career was when Salima became the captain of the women's team last year. She had then told TOI, "I couldn't fulfil my dream of playing for India, but through my students I have achieved my dreams. What I couldn't do as a player, I have been able to do all that as a coach."
Besides training, Barwa, who earned her diploma in coaching in 2007-08 at NIS Patiala, also played a major role as the Training Centre in Simdega got an Astroturf for the first time way back in 2015.
It was after her side lost the Nehru Girls Hockey Tournament (U17) final in 2010 by nine goals to Govt. Girls Sr. Sec. School Shahabad, who had Rani Rampal in their team, that they raised the demand for an Astroturf surface.
"We then got the go-ahead in 2013 and the field was ready two years later. During this time she used to monitor the progress with us and was beyond happy when it was finally complete," said Hockey Simdega president Manoj Konbegi.
Later in 2021, the ground also successfully hosted two national championships — sub-junior women's and junior women's hockey. But sadly for Jharkhand, the host side lost both the finals. But Barwa's students like Deepika, Ropni Kumari and Rajni Kerketta showed what they were capable of as they slowly and steadily made it to the national camp.
"With the premature demise of Pratima ji, Jharkhand has lost an invaluable coach.
She had the immense credit of churning out the country's top woman hockey players from Jharkhand. She made a huge contribution in the development of hockey in the state," Konbegi added.
Barwa, however, had been struggling with her health for a while and had requested for a transfer to Residential Boys Hockey Training Centre in Khunti where she had been training for the past one year. She, however, was present at the inaugural edition of the women's Hockey India League earlier this year and was elated to see her students play alongside the best of the world.
Ahead of the Women's HIL final at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astroturf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi, she also shared an emotional moment with Salima who was elated to see her coach at the stands. Sadly, those meet-ups won't happen any more and she will be sorely missed by one and all. Yet, she will continue to live on through her students, who number in the hundreds.