Jats in CWG 2010 Delhi

Jats in CWG 2010 Delhi

The Golden girls of Jatland

Geeta Phaugat, Anita, Babita Phaugat, Nirmala Boora, Suman Kundu, Seema Antil. 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.

Reference: The Golden girls of Jatland - The Times of India

Jats lead the pack at Commonwealth Games 2010

The Jat community, which threatened to scuttle the Commonwealth Games and block the Games baton seeking reservation in government jobs, has turned out to be the nation's flag bearer at the mega sporting event.

Jats hailing from Haryana who have been in the news recently for female foeticide and for their support of honour killings have so far won 13 gold, four silver and seven bronze medals in various events. It is by far India's top medal winning state at the Games.

As Krishna Poonia, a Haryanvi Jat and the gold medallist in the women's discus throw event said on Tuesday at the international broadcasting centre, "Our community is more known for female foeticide and honour killings. But so many Jat women have won medals at the Commonwealth Games; it only proves what we are capable of if given the opportunity." There are 50 athletes from Haryana competing at the Games, of which a remarkable 24 have won medals. The gold haul includes two shooting gold medals won by Harpreet Singh, a Jat Sikh. Seven Jat girls from Haryana and three Jat Sikh girls from Punjab have also added to the medals list.

Two Haryana lad Paramjit Samota has entered the boxing finals in their respective weight categories and are assured of at least a silver, thus taking the tally further up. After the victory of Indian hockey team against England on Tuesday, more Haryana athletes are assured of at least a silver medal. The Indian hockey team features four Haryana Jat boys - Sandeep Singh, Sardara Singh, Mandeep and Bharat. After the sensation victory against England last night, their fans back in their home state are hoping for a gold against the mighty Australians.

Other prominent Jats include Sushil Kumar, the current world champion and the gold winner in the 66kg freestyle wrestling category and Mandeep and Manjeet Kaur who won the 4X400 metres relay last evening. Sociologists and researchers said Jats - Haryana's dominant community - had always promoted traditional sports in rural areas including boxing, wrestling and kabaddi.

It brought home laurels, as Jats linked sports with good infrastructure and livelihood. Dr Pramod Kumar, director, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC) in Chandigarh said that connecting traditional sports with modern infrastructure gave a fillip to Haryana's performance at the CWG.

He said the community leaders in the state always insisted that the youth should follow the moral code and pick up traditional sports. "A feudal mindset enabled and promoted good sportspersons," he said.

Shamsher Singh Dhull - a district sports officer and wrestling coach at Kurukshetra said that the majority of youth pick up sports hoping they would get a job. "They work hard since fame in sport also brings in money," he said. Dhull had spotted [[Rajender Saharan], the gold medal winner in the 55kg Greco-Roman wrestling event at the Games.

"A majority of the boys and girls come from families who respect traditional sports," he said. They are from small and marginal farmer families. Sports are a means of livelihood for them," he said. "Sports can turn their life around," he added. "They can get a job under the sports quota. Three per cent of government jobs in Haryana are reserved for sports-persons.

Railways, several PSUs and private organisations also recruit sports-persons on priority." Rajender said the state government attracted youth to take up sports. "Over 46,000 athletes participated in the 'Play For India' scheme.

The selected boys and girls between 6-14 years and 14-19 years get a monthly allowance of Rs 1,500 and 2,000 respectively. They also get nutritious food, money and a sports kit," he said. In a media interview Poonia had said that it was her in-laws who supported her sporting endeavours.

Her mother-in-law would take care of her son while she would practice. The best known Jat face up until the Games was boxer Vijender Singh, who won a bronze at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. "His success motivated youth in Haryana to work hard and excel in sports," said Vijender's coach Jagdish Singh.

The girls from the Jat community who excel in sports in Haryana have not surprised the natives. "The Jats talk about moral ethics, demand change in Hindu Marriage Act and they are against same Gotra weddings. Does it mean they repress their daughters," questions Naresh Kadyan, the convenor of Kadyan Khap International.

"In fact, the community wants their daughters to excel in every field." But when villager Mahabir at Balali near Charkhi Dadri in Bhiwani district wanted his teenage daughters Geeta Phaugat and Babita Phaugat to take up wrestling, he had to ask them to have bouts with the local boys as no girl would take up the sport in Haryana's orthodox rural set up. But last week, 21-year old Geeta Phougat won a gold medal in the 55kg women's freestyle wrestling and her younger sister Babita won silver in the 51kg event. Their critics have now joined the family to celebrate the achievement^[1].