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Wrestling in rural India: Jammu hosts women championship
Zaffar Iqbal
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 (Samba):
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A women's wrestling championship or dangal has been organized in Jammu for the first time.
Seven women wrestlers from Punjab participated in the dangal in Bishnah, 20 kilometers from Jammu.
"This is the first time I am seeing wrestling by women. I have never seen it before," said Vijay Kumar, a villager.
All the players, winners and losers both, are given cash rewards by the audiences to appreciate their performance and interest in the game.
Bizarre prices
Every year traditional wrestling tournaments are organized in rural areas of Jammu. But the idea of conducting the tournament for women this year is to create awareness among them.
"It's very difficult, the family members of many women do not agree to their participation in the sport. But in today's world all are considered equal, and there is no difference between a boy and a girl," said Reena, wrestler from Punjab.
The prizes for the winners are bizarre - ranging from horses and buffalo to television sets and refrigerators. For the government though, events like these help to popularize rural sports.
"The women wrestlers have come from Punjab this year. We will try that the women wrestlers from J&K also come forward so that it gives a boost to the rural sport and we will make efforts to bring women wrestlers to the fore," said Ashwani Sharma, local MLA.
Though the state has not produced many women wrestlers so far, tournaments like these will definitely go a long way to make the sports popular among the women folk.
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MOHAMMAD AMIN-UL ISLAM
TIMES NEWS NETWORK 10/4/06
NEW DELHI, Oct 4: It wasn’t easy being a girl and living with the stigma of wrestling with boys in the akhara of her village Sisauli (near Meerut). But Alka Tomar took the jibes of village boys and elders in her stride and has now become a trendsetter. The 20-year-old’s exploits -bronze in the World Championship in Guangzhou (China) - should now open new vistas for other girls in this male-dominated sport.
"Alka was very young when she was brought to my camp by her father Nain Singh Tomar. He wanted her to become a champion in 'kushti' because he felt that his daughter had the killer instinct to become a kushtigir," Alka’s coach Jabbar Singh said.
Wrestling has always been a symbol of power and virility for the men. And for Tomar, it was a tough decision to make. But he went by his instinct. "I didn’t like the idea of sending her to the akhara. Even when Alka’s father chopped off her hair to give her a more boyish look, I protested. Like others in my village, I was also against sending my girl to the akharas," said Munni Tomar, Alka’s mother.
It became tough for Munni to visualise her daughter as a kushtigir. But her perception slowly changed when Alka started winning and it was a day to distribute sweets in the Tomar household when she came home with the National junior gold.
From that modest win in 1998 to a bronze medal in World Championship, Alka’s success graph has seen a gradual rise. In between, she won laurels in the Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games and remained the undisputed national champion in her category, freestyle (59kg).
"Wrestling was in my family. Two of my brothers are state level wrestlers. So it was a kind of passion which grew in me when I was very young. Women wrestlers were never heard of, but I didn’t give up. "I continuously asked myself one question: ‘Why can’t I become a wrestler’," said Alka, whose world bronze is the first by an Indian wrestler in 39 years.
Brimming with confidence, Alka is now looking forward to the challenges ahead. "I don’t want to waste time. Right now I am preparing for the Doha Asian Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. There’s lot of work to be done," said Alka.
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10/4/06
Bulgaria won three medals -- two gold and one bronze -- at the Senior World Wrestling Championship in Guangzhou, China. Stanka Zlateva won the first world title for Bulgaria in women's wrestling, defeating five-time world champion Kioko Hamaguchi of Japan. Radoslav Velikov became world champion in the Free Style category, while Kaloyan Dinchev won a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman category.
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