Mukka maidens

BHIWANI(Haryana): Down a dusty lane in a half-built residential area is the town’s boxing club — Bhiwani Boxing Club aka BBC — the powerhouse of India’s success story in the sport.
The club’s chief coach, Jagdish Singh, is busy training his wards for a fighting session. Having given the country champion male pugilists like Vijender, Akhil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Vikas Krishan, Jagdish has now set his sights on a new goal — churning out international-level female boxers.
About a quarter of his charges are young women. Recently, three of the club’s junior boxers — Savita Gothra (52kg category), Sakshi Dhanana (54kg category) and Soniya Gothra (48kg category) — won medals at the World Junior Boxing Championship in Taipei, Taiwan. While Savita and Sakshi bagged gold, Soniya won a silver medal.
Jagdish says it’s the first time BBC’s junior girls have won at the international level. In fact, the event was the first international competition for two of the Indian winners. “We are going to produce more world-class women boxers now,” says the coach, a Dronacharya awardee.
Savita, 15, grew up watching boys sporting their boxing kits at her village, Gothra, about 40km from Bhiwani. Inspired by Vijender’s bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics, Savita insisted her father send her to the club. “The training is world class. In 2008, I saw Vijender Singh fight, and I learned that he’d practised here for eight years. That’s why I came here,” Savita recollects, with a demure smile.
Her fellow trainee Soniya was motivated by the achievements of five-time world champion MC Mary Kom. “After watching the movie based on her life, I was inspired. I’m determined to represent the country at the Olympics,” she says confidently.
The girls’ parents have their own dreams. Manoj Kumar, father of 15-year-old Sakshi, hopes this stint will translate into a better future for his daughter. “If she becomes a successful boxer, she will get a government job,” he explains.
Times have certainly changed since Pooja Rani, bronze medallist at the Incheon Asian Games, took up the sport seven years ago. The girl from Nimdri Wali village says she began boxing quite discreetly. “My parents were dead against my plans of making a career out of boxing. My father would say, ‘Achhe bacche boxing nahin khelte’. I would conceal my injuries fearing my father would stop me from going into the ring,” says Pooja, who trained at the club in her teenage years. Things changed after she began to win championships. Pooja also got a job as an income tax inspector in Haryana. “Then all the objections stopped,” she smiles.
Clearly, the town’s boxing culture has jumped the otherwise rigid gender divide in the area. Every evening, while senior boxers slug it out in BBC’s two rings, a hundred young boys and girls gather to skip rope, spar and work out on a dozen battered bags. There are various levels of training, from beginner to contender. “Shadow!” Jagdish calls out, following a shrill blast of a police whistle that signals the youngsters to begin shadow-boxing... Bhiwani, India’s “Little Cuba”, packs quite a punch.