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
HockeyAt Rajgangpur village in the interiors of Sundargarh district, Odisha, Sunil Tigga, an ex-armyman trains young girls and boys for free. The kids, who can&rsquot even afford shoes, hope to make it to formal training academies. Local hockey tournaments are held on weekends where a goat is awarded as the prize. Odisha, which has produced national hockey players such as Gloria Dung Dung
Image by Anand Sah for Forbes India
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Football Rinki Majhi, on her way back from training with her under-9 football team at Joshra village in the Somra Bazaar area of Bengal&rsquos Hooghly district. Girls like her and Meghna Saha come to train every day, from homes of farmers or construction labourers. Rinki&rsquos team travels to Kolkata to play in the Baby League, a talent-scouting league format football competition for chi
Image by Subrata Biswas for Forbes India
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Badminton At the Sports Authority of India Gopichand National Badminton Academy in Hyderabad, the results of an exacting fitness regimen and training&mdashthree sessions of two hours every day&mdashare showing on Meghana Reddy and other players. Meghana won the doubles gold in under-15 Badminton Asia Championships in Myanmar last October. Her parents, police officer Ravinder Reddy and te
Image by Madhu Kapparath
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Track & field Aditi Parab (second from right), who won gold in the under-17 4x400 m relay at the Khelo India Youth Games in January, spent 16 months training on the concrete steps of Dadoji Konddev Stadium in Thane, Mumbai&rsquos neighbouring district. The athletes don&rsquot step on the stadium&rsquos infield as the grass is protected for cricket matches. Seen here (from left) are Aditi
Image by Mexy Xavier
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Fencing Fencing&rsquos 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&rsquos Sagar Lagu at the organisation&rsquos centre in Thalassery, Keral
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&rsquos 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 Wr
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&rsquos players, on their famed Manipur ponies, have made a mark around the world in women&rsquos 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
