Haryana: Till just a year ago, the yellow mat in a spacious room at an akhada in Haryana’s Jhajjar was packed with female wrestlers, surrounded by weights, dummies, and resistance bands. However, following the protests over alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers by former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, many families pulled their daughters out of the sport, fearing for their safety.

“Parents said if women cannot be safe even in wrestling, what’s the point?” said Virender Bhuria, the coach at the Jhajjar akhada, called Dada Shyam Akhada. Bhuria now hopes that wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who has joined the Congress and is set to make her political debut from Haryana’s Julana assembly constituency, will become the sports minister.

Phogat isn’t contesting from Bhuria’s constituency, but she has his support, along with that of other wrestlers and coaches at akhadas across the state.

Phogat, who was born in Charkhi Dadri, joined the Congress after returning from the Paris Olympics, where she was at the centre of a national heartbreak when she was disqualified for being 100 grams over the weight limit on the day of her final bout in the city. She is the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the Olympics final.

ThePrint visited several akhadas across Haryana to gauge the response of the wrestling community to her political debut and what her shift from the mat to the political arena signifies for her supporters.

In most places, the support for her is evident.

In his Jhajjar akhada, Virender Bhuria strikes an iron bell to wake up girls for their evening practice session.

“Earlier, there were 30-40 female wrestlers practising at my akhada. Now, there are barely 10 to 12,” said Bhuria, whose daughters—22-year-old Anjali and 17-year-old Shivani—are also wrestlers.

Bhuria, who has two separate akhadas—one for boys and another for girls—emphasises that the safety of female wrestlers has always been his priority.

With such a significant drop in young girls participating in wrestling, Bhuria is pinning his hopes on Phogat’s win.

“Although she is not from our assembly constituency, we want her to win for our pehelwan betis,” he told ThePrint, flanked by young girls who nodded in agreement. They are all looking up to Phogat now as a leader who can now ameliorate their lives.

Ranveer Dhaka, retired chief coach of India’s wrestling team (junior wing) who is currently a coach at Mehar Singh akhada in Rohtak, said that “after Vinesh’s protest, Haryana society was impacted and parents withdrew their daughters (from the sport)”.

“So, her protest didn’t send a good message for female wrestlers in society,” Dhaka explained. But he was quick to add that Phogat’s performance in the Olympics compensated for everything.

“For us, Vinesh Phogat is a gold medallist and her performance in the Olympics changed the narrative regarding sending women to the wrestling ring,” he added.

According to Dhaka, several wrestlers such as (the late) Nafe Singh Rathee and Yogeshwar Dutt had joined politics and got positions of power. But it was not the same for women wrestlers.

“Babita (Phogat) was the first one to join but she didn’t win. We haven’t had a female wrestler becoming a minister. Now, it’s to be seen what Vinesh does,” he told ThePrint.

Babita had joined the BJP and fought the 2019 Haryana state elections from Dadri but lost.

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‘Vinesh Phogat a glimmer of hope’

Phogat’s entry into the electoral field is not only a boost for the Congress’ prospects in Haryana but also a “renewed” glimmer of hope for wrestlers across the state who are plagued with several problems, the most important being paltry rewards and no government jobs.

Akhadas in Chhara village in Haryana’s Jhajjar have been credited with gifting wrestling stars to the country, be it Bajrang Punia, Prachi Dalal or Vinesh Phogat.

Ajay from Leelu Akhada laments that there are jobless wrestlers in every second household in Haryana. He accuses the BJP-led state government, in power for the past 10 years, for being indifferent to the plight of wrestlers in the state.

“During the Congress’ time, wrestlers would get jobs in the government sector but this has reduced significantly in the BJP regime. Hardly, any wrestler is getting a government job,” he alleged.

Under the Congress regime led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the “Padak Lao, Pad Pao” (bring a medal, get a job) scheme was introduced to recognise and reward top-performing athletes. The scheme was hailed for giving jobs to wrestlers Yogeshwar Dutt and Babita Phogat, and boxer Vijender Kumar.

While Phogat is drawing support from akhadas, the same cannot be said for another woman wrestler, Kavita Dalal—known as Lady Khali—who is competing against her from Julana constituency on an AAP ticket.

Dalal, who joined the AAP in 2022, is the first woman wrestler to compete in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). She won a gold medal in the 2016 South Asian Games and represented India in weightlifting before transitioning to professional wrestling, WWE, from 2017 to 2021.

“Most people in Haryana don’t understand WWE. We’ve seen it on our phones; they just keep hitting each other, and their style is very different from our wrestling,” said Arya Vijender Charra, coach of Charra Akhada in Jhajjar.

“Moreover, there is no national or international competition for this type of wrestling,” he added.

Last December, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had visited this akhada to meet a group of wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia.

Now, with Dalal and Phogat in the electoral ring against each other, wrestlers and coaches are eagerly waiting for 8 October to know who will win the poll battle.

In akhadas, Phogat clearly has an edge over Dalal, mainly because of lack of understanding about the latter’s game.

“Vinesh retired from sports after being subjected to humiliation and I think it’s right to join politics and explore what it has for her,” said coach Ajay from Guru Leelu Akhada in Ladpur village.

How women got into wrestling in conservative Haryana

It was Master Chandgi Ram Pahalwan from Hisar, a freestyle wrestler, who is credited with bringing women into the wrestling ring.

He began at home, starting with his own daughters. In 1997, Ram persuaded his daughters, Sonika and Deepika, to take up wrestling, marking the transformation of Chandgi Ram Akhada into India’s first training centre for women’s wrestling.

Ram didn’t stop there. He continued convincing other coaches, not just in Haryana but across India, to introduce women to traditional wrestling. This marked the beginning of a movement, and since then, Haryana has produced star female wrestlers like Geeta and Babita Phogat, whose journey was portrayed in the movie Dangal, as well as Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat, among several others.

“The first women’s nationals (in wrestling) was in Hyderabad. And the women in that competition were from judo because we didn’t have female wrestlers. That’s when Chandgi Ram got his daughters into the game,” said Dhaka, adding that women’s participation in wrestling had surged until last year.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)

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