Parwati Topno, who helped India win the Junior Asia Cup hockey gold medal in China, returned to her village in Gumla to find part of her family’s clay house collapsed after heavy rain, with inadequate water supply and a deteriorating toilet adding to the household’s difficulties.
The 18-year-old defender’s home is in Kumhartoli village in Kamdara block. According to a report by Times of India – Ranchi, one side of the house has fallen, while the remaining structure has cracked walls and a leaking roof. The family’s toilet, built several years ago, is also in a dilapidated condition.
Parwati said her family had not received assistance under a housing scheme. Drinking water is obtained mainly from a village hand pump because the household connection is irregular and insufficient. Her father, Soma Topno, works as a mason when work is available and also cultivates farmland belonging to others as a sharecropper.
“On returning home, I felt upset seeing my house damaged on account of rain. We have not been allotted any housing scheme so far, while we draw drinking water from the village hand pump,” Parwati said, according to the report. She also said that the household water connection was not regular or sufficient and described the toilet as being in a poor condition.
The family’s livelihood remains dependent on irregular work. Parwati’s elder brother works as a migrant labourer in Karnataka, while her sister is employed at a garment factory in Tamil Nadu. The reported condition of the house means that the family’s housing insecurity exists alongside limited and dispersed sources of income.
Parwati won gold with the Indian junior women’s team after it defeated hosts China 1-0 in the final of the tournament in Moqi this month. Her sporting career began at the day-boarding hockey centre at Glosap Memorial School in Kamdara. In 2018, she cleared a trial and joined the Government Girls’ School Residential Training Centre in Bariatu, Ranchi.
She later played in the Nehru Junior Girls’ Hockey Tournament in Delhi and the Sub-Junior Women’s National Championship in Simdega. After completing Class 12, she was selected for the Centre of Excellence in Morabadi and went on to compete in the Khelo India Youth Games in Chennai and the Junior Women’s National Hockey Tournament in Ranchi in 2024.
Parwati said she was selected for the Khelo India Scholarship and the junior India camp in 2025. She made her international debut in practice matches in Argentina and Germany that year and was also selected for the national team for the Junior World Cup.
Her account brings together three basic service concerns in one household: a damaged dwelling, unreliable piped water and an unusable toilet. The report does not state whether any government department has inspected the property or whether the family has since been assessed for housing assistance. No official response or timeline for relief was cited in the supplied report.
