Ready to tap crowdfunds to enable young athletes, says ex-athlete PT Usha

Ketto is a popular crowdfunding platform, which was co-founded by Bollywood actor Kunal Kapoor.

For now, Usha said that she has tied up with Milaap.org, a crowdfunding platform, and has raised Rs 3.3 lakh out of the four campaigns her school had conducted for her athletes.

"We have raised Rs 3.3 lakh through crowdfunding platform, Milaap.org, to enable promising young athletes. My school has been raising funds on Milaap for over a year," she said.

Usha said that her school has the capacity to train 40 promising athletes but is able to train only 19 due to lack of funds.

The school spends Rs 60 lakh on budding athletes every year, she said and added that the money is sourced from individual donors, institutions and government. "The government spends mostly on building infrastructure including sprinting tracks," she said.

Abhita and Jessy have been major beneficiaries on Milaap platform, with the former raising over Rs 1 lakh for her training. Jessy raised Rs 40,000, she said.

Abhita was declared the best girl athlete in the country in the senior girl's category at the National Schools' Athletics Championships in Pune.

She had also bagged bronze medal in the Commonwealth Youth games, held at Samoa near New Zealand.