Teja ram

Khelo India University Games: Neeta Kumari from Kurukshetra University would’ve been married off by now had her mother and sisters not pushed her to continue her career in sports.

Coming from a family of five sisters and a brother, all of whom have represented Rajasthan in one discipline or another, Neeta is the second eldest. Her journey to the Khelo India University Games 2025 podium after winning a bronze in heptathlon, however, has been defined as much by hardship as by determination.

She was in Class 3 when her father, Teja Ram, a government contractor in Mumbai, died after an electric shock in their native Dhamseen village in Rajasthan’s Jalore district. The tragedy struck in 2013, when her mother, Parwati Devi, was just 36, and was seven months pregnant. Left without a steady livelihood, the family had to pack off from Mumbai and rebuild life from scratch in their native village.