The Golden Girls of Jatland

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Geeta, Anita, Babita, Nirmala, Suman, Seema. Haryana's girls-next-door? Yes, and more. Each belongs to a nondescript village in Haryana. Each has risen — like a new moon — on the Indian sporting horizon. Each appears to portend a new era of female empowerment in a society that's held to nurse a deep-rooted prejudice against women. 

How did this happen? Just a few days ago, leaders of some khap panchayats demanded that the marriageable age for girls be lowered from 18 to 15 years. The move seemed to be aimed at curtailing female freedom, such as it is in Haryana. Soon enough though, a clutch of Haryana's girls would go for gold, silver and bronze. 

Anita, Babita, Nirmala, Suman and Seema, women wrestlers from different parts of the interior districts of Bhiwani, Hisar and Jind districts, won their individual contests. In the process, they showed the way for thousands of young women in Haryana. 

It was hardly the magic of the moment. They did not achieve any of this overnight. It was the outcome of 10 years of hard work and sacrifice, backed by loving families that threw up a solid wall against finger-pointing neighbours. Each of Jatland's newly golden chhoris comes from a humble background and her parents almost uniformly struggled to pay for the training and diet required by their daughters for years. 

Geeta and Babita are sisters and won gold and silver respectively in the freestyle wrestling event. Their father, Mahavir Singh, a wrestler, prodded them to excel. He took criticism from the villagers in his stride, advising his daughters to let their exploits on the mat do the talking, rather than argue about their right to wrestle. "The villagers used to poke fun at me," Mahavir Singh says today. "Some urged me to shut down the akhara that I have set up for my daughters' training, saying that nobody will marry them. Other girls in the village were asked to stay away from my daughters," he adds. 

Interestingly, each of Jatland's new golden girls was initiated into sport because a family member already practised it. Anita, Nirmala and Suman had grandfathers who, like Mahavir Singh, either played kabaddi or wrestled. Mahavir Singh sagely says it made for an in-built advantage. "Rural girls have an edge in combat sports due to their tough lifestyle." 

The Haryana government's policy of providing police jobs to sportswomen undoubtedly helped. The state police has inducted 41 sportswomen in the last three years — three are DSPs and 11 are sub-inspectors. Even before the Games began chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh to those who won gold, silver and bronze medals respectively. Unsurprisingly, Haryana's golden girls now have their eyes on an Olympic goldrush. 

But this is easy talk today, when they have achieved some measure of success. In those gruelling years of training, money was a huge problem. Their families had to tough it out. So did the girls. They substituted costly gym sessions with traditional physical exercise such as racing through the fields and doing sit-ups on bricks. The special wrestler's diet of milk and ghee became available when their families bought an additional buffalo — at extra cost. 
Suman Kundu's family illustrates the immense hardships of preparing a young Haryanvi woman of humble origins to wrestle at the international level. Kundu is a bronze medallist in the Delhi Games and will compete in the Asian Games as well. 

Her family does not own a television, refrigerator, cooler, or a sofa. They were never able to get rich. They never felt able to buy anything that was not absolutely essential. 

The family's combined earnings were pumped into paying for Suman's coaching. Her father, Ramphal, says, "In 2004, she expressed a desire to go to Rohtak for training. I sent her there to stay with my sister." 

It is surely significant that even though Haryana notoriously marries girls off young, the families of these girls say they don't have immediate plans for their marriage. Anita's mother, Santosh Devi, says, "We only play a supportive role and prop her in her career moves. Only she can decide about her marriage." 

The 2001 census gives Haryana the dubious distinction of the worst male to female ratio in India with 861 women for every 1,000 men. The state has just 819 girls for 1,000 boys in the 0 to 6 years category. 

Jagmati Sangwan, head of the Women's Study Centre at Rohtak's MD University, says, "The success of these girls has elevated the status of women in the state. 

"It's another step forward, in fact, a big leap towards emancipation of women from age-old social taboos prevalent in the society. This will definitely increase the participation of girls in sports and other outdoor activities." 

Mahavir Singh says he can personally attest this to be true in the short interval since his daughter's success at the Commonwealth Games. He says villagers have congratulated him and expressed regret they withdrew their daughters from his akhara. 

Anita's uncle, Tejvir Singh, also says friends and relatives have asked how best to initiate their daughters into sports. 
Nonetheless, the khap panchayats are singing a different tune as well. The Sangwan khap panchayat in Bhiwani has announced that it will felicitate medal-winning sisters Geeta and Babita. 

The Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti and Jat Mahasabha have said they will honour Jat sportspersons — including girls — who have done the community proud. 

Khap leader and Jat Samiti president Hawa Singh Sangwan says the girls' achievements are bound to initiate a local paradigm shift when it comes to the girlchild.