Kabaddi Adda rallies industry leaders for mental health awareness
- Kabaddi Adda initiative brings together top leaders and players along with renowned mental health experts to address the issues
- The initiative aims to target grassroot tiers of the ecosystem and build awareness on mental health within the growing Kabaddi community, to aid development of players and coaches
In wake of the recent events propelled by the pandemic, sports startup, Kabaddi Adda has unveiled a mental health initiative for the Kabaddi ecosystem. Titled ‘Mann Ki Jeet’, the open-to-all initiative brings together leaders in the ecosystem to create awareness on the importance of mental health, ahead of upcoming tournaments. To reach out to the grassroot tiers of the player community, the initiative primarily focuses on Hindi and will reach out to 90+ academies with more than 800 players and 500,000+ subscribers of the brand.
Supported by former captain of the Indian Kabaddi Team Ajay Thakur, along with award-winning national players like BC Ramesh, Ashok Shinde, Rishank Devadiga, Indian Captain Deepak Niwas Hooda and veteran player Dharmaraj Cheralathan and Dronacharya Awardee coach Rambir Singh Khokhar, in addition to the CEOs of the Pro Kabaddi League. Former Dean and Senior Professor of Psychiatry at NIMHANS, Bangalore, Dr. Santosh Kumar Chaturvedi among other prominent doctors will be on board as well.
Ace kabaddi player and one of the leading voices of the initiative, Ajay Thakur discloses, “I too have been suffering from anxiety and depression since the pandemic. I would now like to help young players participating in the K7 tournament realise their mental health issues and work around the same. This has been a hard time for all of us and I’m truly hoping that the upcoming events will rescue us from this dry run.”
He also adds, “I’m so glad to see so many kabaddi community leaders coming together and joining forces to take up the cause to help the Kabaddi players’ ecosystem.”
Founded by former professional cricketer and IPL commentator, Suhail Chandhok and Arvind Sivdas, Kabaddi Adda is the digital market leader and trust holder of the Indian vernacular kabaddi fan. With tremendous reach on social media that already includes over 500,000 Kabaddi players and fans mostly from Bharat, Kabaddi Adda has developed a deep-rooted connection within this ecosystem.
Kabaddi Adda raised a seed fund of INR 1.5 Cr from Artha Ventures in 2019 and has been making inroads in the ecosystem with its tournaments like K7 and diversified content around Kabaddi. Currently, the company empowers more than 4000 players and connects them to 500,000+ followers with over 2.5 Million active engagements every month.
Says Kabaddi Adda co-founder and CEO Arvind Sivdas, “We felt mental health wellbeing was an important issue which needed to be addressed ahead of resumption of live sports after a considerable gap. Our initiative saw very encouraging participation from industry leaders and the player community to lift and support budding athletes. We plan to launch the K7 tournaments soon to bring opportunities to players waiting to get back into the game and we hope to see them fit, physically, as well as mentally.”
