Meet Our Tribal Arjuna Awardees Salima Tete, Hokato Sema

New Delhi

India’s first Olympics double medallist shooter Manu Bhaker, youngest-ever chess world champion D Gukesh, men’s hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and para-athlete Praveen Kumar were on Thursday named recipients of this year’s Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award — the country’s highest sporting honour.

The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at Rashtrapati Bhavan on January 17.

SALIMA TETE (JHARKHAND)

Belonging to the Khasi tribe and hailing from Barki Chanpi village in Jharkhand’s Simdega district, considered a hockey cradle, Tete was just 10 years old when her father, Sulakshan Tete, took her to the district hockey ground. Her raw talent impressed her coach Manoj Kondegi, who runs the Navyuvak Sangh sports club and organises regular matches for villages in the vicinity. 

The coach wanted Tete to be admitted to a sports academy to sharpen her skills. But Sulakshan Tete was only a marginal farmer and his wife, Subani, cooked midday meals at a local school. With a large family of five daughters and one son to consider, he was reluctant, considering the costs, though himself a hockey team player.

Kondegi, however, was not one to give up easily. He cajoled Sulakshan — promising everything free of cost — into admitting his daughter into the Residential Hockey Training Centre, Simdega. But despite her predilection for the game, it took Tete two years of hard work to make any headway. After representing sub-junior teams at the state and national levels, she was finally selected for the Indian camp in 2016 and never looked back.

Known for her fierce defending, 23-year-old Tete was the captain of the Indian junior squad that won silver medal at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. She was part of India’s successful campaigns at the 2022 Women’s Asia Cup, where they finished third; in the FIH Hockey Women’s Pro League in 2021-22 where too they finished third and the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, when India bagged the bronze medal. She was one of India’s standout players at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics wherein India finished fourth.

Led by Tete, recently India Women’s Hockey Team clinched their third Asian Champions Trophy title after defeating China in a tightly-contested final.

HOKATO SEMA (NAGALAND)

He is a living example of grit and determination. Hailing from the Sumi Naga tribe and a native of Dimapur, 41-year-old Sema is the first athlete from Nagaland to win a Paralympics medal. A former Army man, the shot-putter is a landmine blast survivor and scripted history at the Paralympics 2024 by clinching bronze for India in the men’s F57 category shotput final.

A native of Dimapur in Nagaland, Sema was a Havaldar in the Indian Army and lost his leg during an operation at the Line of Control in 2002 due to a landmine blast. Given the circumstances, he began his tryst with shot put. Sema was motivated by a senior army official at the Pune-based Artificial Limb Centre to take up shot put. He took up the sport in 2016 when he was 32 years old and began to compete in the National Para Championships in Jaipur in the same year. 

The Sumi Naga, also known as the Sema, are a major Naga tribe that primarily live in Nagaland. This Naga tribe is believed to have migrated from regions in modern-day Myanmar to Northeast India.

Below is the full list of awardees:

i. Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2024

2. Arjuna Awards for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024

3. Arjuna Awards (Lifetime) for outstanding performance in Sports and Games 2024

4. Dronacharya Award for outstanding coaches in Sports and Games 2024
5. Regular Category:

2. Lifetime Category:

5. Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar

(vi)       Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy 2024: