Kabaddi Adda to provide mental health support to athletes

NEW DELHI: Digital content platform Kabbadi Adda has unveiled a new mental health campaign to build a greater support system for the player community at the grassroots level.

Titled ‘Mann Ki Jeet’, the campaign has been supported by former dean and senior professor of psychiatry at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Santosh Kumar Chaturvedi and other doctors.

It has also found support from kabaddi leaders including, former captain of the Indian Kabaddi Team Ajay Thakur, along with national players like BC Ramesh, Ashok Shinde, Rishank Devadiga, current Indian captain Deepak Niwas Hooda, veteran player Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Dronacharya Awardee coach Rambir Singh Khokhar.

The campaign, which has three closed-door sessions, will be primarily be hosted in Hindi and is aimed at the kabaddi players.

Talking about the campaign's objective, doctor Chaturvedi said, “Athletes must understand the importance of mental health in order to achieve maximum confidence and dexterity when going back to the field. If they identify any difficulties related to their mental health, they should address them immediately. They can reach out to friends, colleagues, coaches or professionals for help."

As part of this initiative, special invites have also been extended to kabaddi players and coaches from over 90 academies (800 players) who qualified to participate in the upcoming K7 kabaddi tournament.

Attendees will also get a chance to ask questions to the experts and professional Kabaddi players. The sessions will be available on Kabbadi Adda as episodic pieces which will be hosted by Suhail Chandhok, sports commentator and co-founder of Kabaddi Adda.

Chandhok said that mental health wellbeing is an important issue that needs to be addressed ahead of the resumption of live sports.

Kabaddi Adda supports more than 4,000 players and connects them to over 500,000 followers with over 2.5 Million active engagements every month. It raised a seed fund of ₹1.5 crore from Artha Ventures in 2019 and has been making inroads in the ecosystem with its tournaments like K7 and diversified content around kabaddi.