Girls outpunch boys in Mandeep’s village ring

LUDHIANA: If Bhiwani is known to be the cradle of Indian men’s boxing, a remote village in Punjab is assuming the mantle of being its female counterpart.
World Junior Boxing Championship gold winner Mandeep Kaur Sandhu’s village Chakar, near Ludhiana, boasts of heavyweight women boxers like Amandeep Kaur, Simranjit Kaur and Harpreet Kaur — all national-level champions in their respective weight categories.Mandeep’s feat at the World Junior Boxing Championship in Taipei on Saturday has given another reason for the village to burst into celebrations.
A lot of credit for turning Chakar into a boxing powerhouse for women goes to Sher-e-Punjab Sports Academy. At present, there are 125 trainees under the academy, out of which 70% are girls. Interestingly, when the academy was started in 2006 by late Ajmer Singh Sandhu, it had 30 trainees and most of them were boys.
Gradually, the mindset among the villagers changed and they started sending their girls to the academy, initially to learn self-defence.
“Earlier, people used to be very orthodox. They didn’t want their girls to venture out and play a sport. But we convinced the villagers to send their daughters to our academy and learn self-defence. Soon we got great response from the people, and gradually our academy had more girls than boys enrolled in it,” Balwant Singh, the in-charge of Sher-e-Punjab Sports Academy, said.
“Now, I am proud that our girls are not only bringing fame at the national level, but also internationally,” added Balwant, citing Mandeep’s achievement.
Mandeep has been an inspiration for many young girls of the village. “As Mandeep started winning medals, we used to see that the panchayat used to honour her. Her achievements used to inspire us and now my daughter also practises boxing,” Beerpal Kaur, a mother of two girls, said.
“I started practising at the academy, but then had to quit because my family was not supportive. However, when Mandeep started winning medals at the national level, my parents were also convinced and they supported me to play the sport,” Jaspreet Kaur, a budding pugilist of the Sher-e-Punjab Sports Academy, added.