When Mahavir Phogat noticed weightlifter Karnam Malleswari’s podium end on the 2000 Sydney Olympics, it impressed him to introduce the women in his household to wrestling.
Not simply that, his purpose was to organize them for the Olympic podium.
Nonetheless, this was not a straightforward activity in a state like Haryana with the bottom intercourse ratio, the place girls’s struggles start within the womb itself.
Though girls’s wrestling had been launched in India within the mid-90s, it was largely confined to Delhi and had but to make inroads into Haryana. Mahavir’s initiative to coach his daughters Geeta, Babita, Ritu, Sangeeta, alongside along with his nieces, Vinesh and Priyanka, confronted resistance from villagers, together with his family.
His life impressed the Aamir Khan-starrer Bollywood film, Dangal.
Permitting the women to enter the mud pit, historically seen as a male area, was met with vital opposition in his village Balali in Charkhi Dadri district (then in Bhiwani).
Equally, nearly a year-and-a-half later, an initiative to permit women to coach alongside boys at Chotu Ram Stadium Wrestling Centre in Rohtak confronted societal hurdles. Former wrestlers, and even some coaches, expressed reservations, questioning “how goats might keep among the many lions”, fearing that the presence of women would distract boys, resulting in indiscipline.
Quick ahead to 2024. What was as soon as met with sarcasm—folks evaluating women to goats and boys to lions, emphasising the perceived disparity in power and prowess within the wrestling area—has now turn out to be some extent of satisfaction.
Haryana’s girls wrestlers have emerged because the flag bearers of Indian wrestling on the worldwide stage. On the 2024 Paris Olympics, India is represented by six wrestlers, 5 of whom are girls from Haryana’s rural panorama, the place they as soon as confronted stiff opposition to coming into the male-dominated sport.
Meet the workforce
The Indian wrestling contingent in Paris includes Vinesh Phogat (50kg) from Charkhi Dadri, Antim Panghal (53kg) from Hisar, Anshu Malik (57kg) from Jind, Nisha Dahiya (68kg) from Panipat, Reetika Hooda (76kg) from Rohtak, together with the lone male wrestler, Aman Sehrawat (57kg) from Jhajjar.
“Olympics is each sportsperson’s dream, and I’m feeling completely satisfied to be part of the world’s greatest sporting occasion,” stated Reetika Hooda, who hails from Kharkara Village in Rohtak. “Furthermore, Indian girls wrestlers main the Indian cost in Paris is a superb motivation for its future right here.”
Girls’s wrestling was launched within the Olympics on the 2004 Athens Video games, and Indian girls wrestlers made their debut on the 2012 London Olympics. Since then, the Phogat household has been represented in each Olympic Video games, together with in Paris 2024.
It began with Mahavir’s eldest daughter Geeta, who turned the nation’s first lady wrestler to qualify for the Olympics on the 2012 London Video games. Within the subsequent version, it was Babita and Vinesh, and adopted simply by Vinesh within the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In 2024 Paris, Vinesh will likely be competing in her third Olympics, turning into the primary Indian lady wrestler to characteristic in three quadrennial video games.
“After I launched the household women into wrestling, my purpose was an Olympic medal. The women have gained all of the medals, and now solely the Olympic medal is lacking. I hope Vinesh will win it this time in Paris,” says Mahavir Phogat, their mentor.
The 2010 Commonwealth Video games, hosted in New Delhi, noticed girls’s wrestling making its debut within the Commonwealth Video games, and the efficiency of the Indian girls wrestlers—three gold, two silver, and a bronze—modified society’s mindset in direction of girls wrestlers.
Individuals now not acknowledge them as goats however have began seeing them as lionesses within the wrestling area.
“It’s been an extended journey, from villagers being up in arms in opposition to the transfer of constructing the women slug it out with boys within the mud pit, to all the village standing of their honour for the ladies wrestlers successful medals on the 2010 Commonwealth Video games. Since then, Indian girls wrestlers have excelled on the world stage,” says Mahavir.
“Now, 5 of them making it to the Paris Olympics speaks loads about girls wrestling in India,” he provides.
Within the 2016 Rio Olympics, an version after the Indian girls wrestlers made their Olympic debut, a trainee of Rohtak’s Chotu Ram Wrestling Centre, Sakshi Malik, turned the primary Indian lady wrestler to win an Olympic medal. She gained bronze in Rio.
Since then, the ladies trainees of the centre have had a presence in each Olympics.
In 2020 Tokyo, Seema Bisla, who educated for a few years on the centre, was a part of the Indian wrestling contingent. Now, in 2024 Paris, the centre is represented by means of its trainee Reetika Hooda, who’s the primary Indian lady wrestler within the heavyweight class to qualify for the Olympics.
“Instantly after girls’s wrestling was launched in Haryana, the state’s women started making their presence felt on the nationwide degree, and progressively the Indian girls’s wrestling squad turned largely an all-Haryana affair,” explains Mandeep, a coach on the centre beneath whom Sakshi Malik and Reetika prepare.
“Now, within the Paris Olympics, the ladies wrestlers from Haryana have turn out to be synonymous with Indian wrestling. It feels good that you’ve got contributed your bit to this transformation,” he says.
“Through the years, girls’s wrestling has seen a vertical development. A decade in the past, there have been round 20 women on the Rohtak centre, and now the quantity has crossed 100. And I’m solely speaking about one coaching centre. Now there are a lot of extra such centres for girls throughout the state,” the coach says.
“Indian girls wrestlers are doing very nicely, and we expect a few medals from them in Paris,” he provides.
Household assist
Initially, when society was not accepting the ladies from the khap land of Haryana to be a part of the wrestling world, it was the unconditional assist of household, particularly the dad and mom, that saved girls’s wrestling going.
“A lot of our relations are from a sports activities background, so that they had no points with placing the household women in wrestling, however it wasn’t so forthcoming from those who weren’t. At any time when they used to fulfill us, their major concern was, what can be her future if Reetika didn’t excel in wrestling? However her father stood by her determination,” says her mom, Neelam Devi.
“Ever since Reetika earned the Paris Olympics quota place, the identical relations have been wishing her success. Hope no different lady has to face any extra sarcasm, particularly these from rural areas,” provides Neelam Devi.
She and her husband, Jagbir Singh, shifted their base from their native village to Rohtak, in order that they may present higher training to their children and wrestling got here alongside the way in which.
The journey of Indian girls wrestlers has not been simple to date. Aside from dealing with challenges from society, they needed to even battle in opposition to the system, as evidenced by the 2023 wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar, led by Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat amongst others.
This protest shocked the nation, revealing how authorities cope with girls wrestlers regardless of their laurels for the nation.
“Women must cease feeling pity for themselves or contemplating themselves weak. It’s a must to have the power of perception in your self. Step one must be taken by a woman herself; all the pieces else follows,” Vinesh had advised The Hindu.
The time has modified. Now Indian wrestling is recognised by girls wrestlers from Haryana.
This text has been written by Saurabh Duggal. Edited by Padmashree Pande.
