Girls, uninterrupted: India's sportswomen let it rip
Over the last few years, young sportswomen have exploded onto the global stage with medal-winning performances. Their stories of perseverance amid hardship are now spurring a legion of determined girl
Fencing Fencing’s future hopefuls, Sowmiya S and Vedika Kaushik from Kerala, travelled in the crowded sleeper coach of the Silchar-Thiruvananthapuram Express, for three days each way, to participate in the Senior National Fencing Championship in Guwahati in February. They are trained by Sports Authority of India’s Sagar Lagu at the organisation’s centre in Thalassery, Kerala.
Image by Subrata Biswas for Forbes India
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Wrestling A glassful of fresh buffalo milk and the love of a grandmother are at the heart of wrestler Bhumi Phogat’s regimen in the rural hinterland of Rohtak, Haryana, where women wrestlers are a healthy aberration in a patriarchal, feudal society. Bhumi, who recently won a gold medal at the national wrestling championship held in Cuttack, Odisha, trains at the Chhotu Ram Stadium Wrestli
Image by Amit Verma
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ShootingBustling activity at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy in Bhopal. The academy has been making news lately with its scientific training programme and a host of medal-winning sharpshooters, including 18-year-old trap shooter Manisha Keer, who made history by becoming the first Indian woman to win a silver in the junior shotgun event at the International Shooting Sports Feder
Image by Pravin Bajpai for Forbes India
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PoloIn February, young women lined up at the All Manipur Polo Association ground in Iroisemba, Manipur, to learn from senior polo players, despite a shutdown and curfew in capital city Imphal following volatile protests around the Citizen Amendment Bill. Manipur’s players, on their famed Manipur ponies, have made a mark around the world in women’s polo.
Image by Mongjam Ajit Kumar Singh for Forbes India
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CricketLocated in outer Delhi, Shahbad Dairy is a badland with one of the highest rates of missing children. Sant Lal, an activist from Chitrakoot, arrived here in 2007 and set up Saksham, an initiative to empower schoolchildren with support from CRY. In 2014, alarmed by news of abductions and rapes, Lal began thinking of an initiative that would empower girls. He thought of a sport that
