Stiff resistance from home did not stop a 16-year-old girl in Murshidabad’s Beldanga block from pursuing kabaddi. And now she is coaching girls in her school on the basics of the sport.
Class XI student Halima Khatun has played kabaddi at the national level and the school has supported her in her journey just as it tries to push other girls to the field despite resistance from their families.
After a gap of almost three years, Debkunda Sk. Razzak Memorial Girls High Madarsah has resumed coaching girls in sports that would help them come out of, what a teacher said was, “their closed upbringing and that which limits their life to home and marriage”.
“There is a certain inhibition in the girls to take up physical activities and that causes a change in their mindset too. They lack an outlook of going out into the world as independent girls. Sports help them to break free of those limitations something that classroom teaching cannot,” said Murshida Khatun, headmistress of the madrasa.
Halima, for example, had been persuaded by her family members that she should give up kabaddi and cycling.
“She was told that if she is into sports she would not be able to get married. We had to convince her that sport can take her places. Now, she is passing on that realisation among other girls,” said headmistress Khatun.
Even now when the Class XI girl still steps out of her home in Debkunda she cannot do so in her jersey and track pants but in salwar kameez.
“The villagers or neighbours do not approve of my playing or cycling. They would come and tell my parents that it is not right for a girl to be travelling to different cities to play,” she said.
In December 2022, she travelled to Jharkhand for kabaddi and in 2021 she came to Kolkata for a cycle race.
Her father, who is a mason cannot afford to buy her a cycle, and she has been given one by her school.
In 2021, she won a scholarship from The Telegraph School Awards for Excellence which she used to buy accessories like shoes for her sports.
The loss because of the pandemic is not restricted to academics alone. It has taken a heavy toll on sports and extracurricular activities, said a teacher. But teachers are trying to make up for the lost time.
“Some of her girls had excelled in volleyball but everything took a setback during the pandemic. We reach a certain place after years of effort because the girls come from backgrounds where whether they play or not is not their choice,” said headmistress Khatun.
This January, at the start of the new session, the madarsa has started sports activities with girls from classes VI, VII and VIII, something that was on hold during the pandemic.
When the girls are on the field and are running there is a certain spontaneity. “The hesitation is not there,” the teacher said.
For girls like Halima and many others here, the fight is not just financial.
“It is a fight against their circumstances and upbringing that would limit their growth and distract them from their goals. It is on us to make them realise their potential and also counsel their parents when needed,” said the headmistress.
