With its mammoth infrastructure, Indian Railways is India’s largest employer and 8th largest in the world. From ferrying passengers to transferring goods, Indian Railways is often the lifeline of the country.

Indian Railways is not limited to passengers and goods supply though, they also greatly encourage sportsmen and women in every possible way and has special recruitment drives for taking on outstanding players in almost all sports.

Players often get initial appointments as ticket collectors, which depends on their qualifications also. As a ticket collector, they get flexibility in working hours and can therefore choose their shift depending on their training schedules.

Some perks which these players enjoy are free travel, lighter workloads, short working hours, & most importantly, state of the art coaching and training facilities across India. What’s more is that if a player/team wins a Gold medal in National or International Tournaments, Railways has provisions to grant a 330-day special leave, which allows their sportspersons to attend camps to focus on their training. It is completely a performance-related arrangement.

"MS Dhoni(popular as MAHI) was a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) at Kharagpur railway station from 2001 to 2003, under South Eastern Railway in Midnapore (W), a district in West Bengal."

But now the question is, how does a Kabaddi player get a job in the Railways?

Railways’ recruitment process is controlled by the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB). As the name suggests, RSPB is a formal setup for the organization and promotion of sports for Railways. RSPB has 30 sports disciplines under its belt and some of the greatest Indian Kabaddi personalities have belonged to Indian Railways. Neeta Moreshwer Dadwe, Randhir Singh, Bishwajit Palit, Sanjeev Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Tejaswini Bai, Mamtha Pujari, Manjeet Chillar, Abhilasha Mahtre are all Arjuna awardees who are also Indian Railways’ Gems.

Recruitment process:
Recruitment of sportspersons is done through Talent Scouting and Open Advertisement. 60% of the total quota is through Talent Scouting and the remaining 40% is filled up by Open Advertisement.

A. Talent scouting: 
Medal holders in National events are called under talent scouting and the appointment is always through trials, and in a team game like Kabaddi, it's compulsory. Trials are conducted by the concerned zones within six months from the date of application. Talent scouting is done by zones depending on the requirements of a team, and talented players are called by invitation. 

Minimum Qualification:
SSC or above. Sportspersons carrying outstanding sports achievements, but that do not possess the minimum educational qualifications may be appointed after the prior approval of the Railway Board for relaxation in minimum educational qualification, subject to acquiring the same within a period of four years from the date of his/her appointment.

Age limit under talent scouting:
18-24 years. Lower and upper age relaxation may be granted to outstanding sportspersons only by the Railway board after submission of relevant information and documents.

Health check-up is mandatory for all the applicants. 

Medal criteria and validity:
1.    Medal in Junior or Senior National Tournament either Gold, Silver or Bronze OR
2.    Medal in All India Inter University Tournament either Gold, Silver or Bronze 

The sports achievements shall be in the immediate previous two years and sportspersons shall be active players. 

B. Open advertisement:
The recruitment under open advertisement is done by respective zones depending upon their requirements in the team. In this case, the zones prepare an employment notice and they are bound to publish the same in national/local newspapers as the rule shall be the same as is being followed in the case of recruitment through Railway Recruitment Board.

Minimum Qualification:
SSC or above, no relaxation in minimum educational Qualification is allowed.

Age limit under open advertisement:
18-24 years. Lower and upper age relaxation may be granted to the outstanding sports person only by the Railway board after submission of relevant information and documents.

Health check-up is mandatory for all the applicants.

Medal criteria and validity:
1.    Medal in Junior or Senior National Tournament either Gold, Silver or Bronze OR
2.    Medal in All India Inter University Tournament either Gold, Silver or Bronze 

The sports achievements shall be in the immediate previous two years and the sportsperson shall be an active player. 

Distribution of marks under open advertisement:
Skill, fitness, coach’s observation during trials – 40 Marks
Recognized sports achievements as per norms – 50 Marks
Educational qualification – 5 Marks
General intelligence/personality etc. – 5 Marks
Total – 100 Marks  

The selected applicants undergo a trial in front of a trial committee formed by the zone. The trial committee comprises of 3 or 4 member team, with experience in sports and 3 of them from Railways, and can be a coach, Sr. National or International level player or Asst. sports officer.

The trial committee gives its recommendation in terms of either FIT or NOT FIT for consideration for the next stage by giving marks. The candidates securing 25 marks or more are deemed fit and below 25 are deemed not fit, hence not fit candidates are disqualified for the next stage.

Fit candidates are called for the next stage, i.e. interview mostly on the same day or the following day. The recruitment committee takes the interview and award the marks depending on their sports achievement, qualification and general intelligence. 

The minimum qualifying marks for recruitment through open advertisement is 60.

Now how will you come to know about the talent scouting or open advertisement recruitments?
There are 16 active Kabaddi teams which belongs to different zones and you need to keep an eye on them. They may come-up with their requirements in the local newspapers or on their website. 
 

1. South Central railway (SCR) – Hyderabad, Telangana
2. South East central railway (SECR) – Bilaspur, Chattisgarh
3. Rail Wheel Factory (RWF) – Bengaluru, Karnataka
4. Integral coach factory (ICF) – Chennai, Tamilnadu
5. Western Railway (WR) – Mumbai, Maharashtra
6. East Central Railway (ECR) – Hajipur, Bihar
7. North Eastern Railway (NER) – Gorakhpur, UP
8. All India Railway protection force (RPF) – Delhi
9. Northern Railway (NR) – Delhi
10. South Eastern Railway (SER) – Kolkata, West Bengal
11. North Western Railway (NWR) – Jaipur, Rajasthan
12. Railway Board (RB) – Delhi
13. Central Railway (CR) – Mumbai, Maharashtra
14. Eastern Railway (ER) – Patna, Bihar
15. Diesel Loco Modernisation Works (DLMW) – Patiala, Punjab
16. South Western Railway (SWR) – Hubli – Karnataka

We at Kabaddi Adda hope this article will help you in some way and once you secure a spot with any of the Indian Railways zones, you will get a chance to rub shoulders with these 10 outstanding Indian Railway players:

1. Pawan Sehrawat
2. Vikas Kandola
3. D. Cheralathan
4. Ravinder Pahal
5. Sunil Kumar
6. Parvesh Malik
7. Sandeep Dhull
8. Shrikant Jadhav
9. Deepak Narwal 
10. Rohit Gulia