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

Mar 02, 2019, 07:30 IST2 min

1/5

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

2/5

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 Wrestling Academy in Rohtak. The academy, which has given India its first Olympic medallist in women’s wrestling (Sakshi Malik) and over 31 international wrestlers, is the training ground for more than 100 children, including champions Mansi and Khushi Ahlawat.

Image by Amit Verma

3/5

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 Federation championship in South Korea last September. Olympian Mansher Singh, who specialises in double trap and trap shooting, coaches at the academy.

Image by Pravin Bajpai for Forbes India

4/5

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

5/5

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 connects with the young and old alike, and started an all-girls cricket team in 2015. They played a local tournament against a boys’ teams. When the girls won and paraded their trophy through the narrow streets, the message came home.

Image by Madhu Kapparath