Initially, eight of them had started playing in the village, however, four of them gave up due to pressure, while the other four, Anju, Gagandeep Kaur, Pooja Rani and Lakhwinder Kaur, continued the game facing criticism of the family and friends.
Ferozepur: Despite several hurdles from poverty to gender discrimination, four girls from the border village of Gatti Rajoke have won gold medal in kabaddi at the state-level championship that took place from December 19-22 at Barnala, a report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says
The parents of most of the girls are daily wage earners.
“Initially, their parents were reluctant to send them to a school, what to talk about participating in the sports like kabaddi,” said Dr Satinder Singh, Principal of the government school, where the girls have been studying.
Initially, eight of them had started playing in the village, however, four of them gave up due to pressure, while the other four, Anju, Gagandeep Kaur, Pooja Rani and Lakhwinder Kaur, continued the game facing criticism of the family and friends.
In the absence of any ground and training facilities in the village, they would travel almost 17-km daily.
“Being the youngest of the four siblings, my parents, initially reluctant, allowed me to continue with my passion for kabaddi after the intervention of my elder sister,” said Anju.
“We are four sisters. It was difficult for my father to afford Rs 60 on my travel daily. However, I convinced him and used my pocket money to meet travel expenses,” said Pooja.
“I used to get up at 4 am and then continue running and exercise till 7:30 am. After that, I used to go to the school and later, after recess, we used to go to the stadium,” said Lakhwinder, adding that the villagers used to call names and often mock at us, but now the same people feel proud of us,” she said.
“Since my mother had expired two years ago, my father, who is also a daily wager, used to ask me to rather focus on household chores,” said Gagandeep.
“We are four sisters. It was difficult for my father to afford Rs 60 on my travel daily. However, I convinced him and used my pocket money to meet travel expenses,” said Pooja.
“For the girls, travelling to the stadium in an auto-rickshaw and facing daily challenges was not an easy task. However, with sheer determination and strong will, they overcame the adverse circumstances and won the gold medal,” said Satinder. Their parents, who were earlier preventing them from participating in the sports activities, are now lauding their efforts.
“I am happy that the girls lived up to my expectations and performed well. This is also a fact that they worked very hard and I am hopeful that soon they will bring a gold in the national games too,” said Avtar Kaur, the girls’ coach.
She said that the administration and others should come forward to extend all possible help to these budding players.
“These four girls were part of the 11-member squad representing the district. Besides the four girls, six girls were from Guruharsahai while another one was from the city,” Gagan Matta, District Sports Officer said.
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