Phogat sisters

The Phogat sisters are six sisters from Haryana, India, all of whom are wrestlers. In order of their birth, they are Geeta, Babita, Priyanka, Ritu, Vinesh, and Sangeeta.[1] While Geeta, Babita, Ritu, and Sangeeta are daughters of former wrestler and coach Mahavir Singh Phogat, Priyanka and Vinesh were brought up by Mahavir after their father, who is the younger brother of Mahavir, died when they were young.[2] Mahavir trained all six of them in wrestling in their home village of Balali in Bhiwani district.[3][4][5]

"Phogat" redirects here. For the village in Haryana, see Phogat, Bhiwani.

Phogat sisters
Phogat family in 2017
Phogat family in 2017
Current regionBalali, Charkhi Dadri district, Haryana, India
MembersGeeta Phogat
Babita Kumari
Priyanka Phogat
Ritu Phogat
Vinesh Phogat
Sangeeta Phogat
Connected membersMahavir Singh Phogat (father)

Three of the Phogat sisters, Geeta, Babita, and Vinesh, are gold medalists in different weight categories at the Commonwealth Games, while Priyanka has won a silver medal at the Asian Championships. Ritu is a National Championships gold medalist and Sangita has won medals at age-level international championships.[6][7]

The success of the Phogat sisters has attracted substantial media attention, particularly in light of prevalent social issues in Haryana such as gender inequality, female foeticide, and child marriage.[8][9] Chandgi Ram's daughters, Sonika and Deepika, sowed the seeds of encouraging girls to take up women's wrestling in the 1990s; his protege Mahavir Phogat's daughters revolutionized wrestling, and then Sakshi Malik won an Olympic medal, which led to a big change in the mentality towards women wrestling.[10]

Background

Mahavir Singh Phogat is a former wrestler from Balali village in Bhiwani district, Haryana, who became a wrestling coach. His father Man Singh was also a wrestler. Mahavir and his wife Daya Kaur have five children: daughters Geeta, Babita, Ritu, and Sangita, and the youngest being son Dushyant and the youngest being Mahavir's brother Rajpal's daughters Priyanka and Vinesh were brought up by Mahavir after the death of their father.

Mahavir was inspired to train his daughters in wrestling when weightlifter Karnam Malleswari became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in 2000. He was also influenced by his coach Chandgi Ram, who had taught wrestling to his own daughters.[11] Kaur recollects, "I told my husband not to push the girls into the sport. I was worried about how they will ever get married as pehelwans wearing shorts and cutting their hair!"[12] Regarding the opposition by the villagers against training his daughters, Mahavir said, "Everyone said I was bringing shame to our village by training my girls, but I thought, if a woman can be Prime Minister of a country, why can't she be a wrestler?"[8] Deprived of proper facilities in his village where his daughters wrestled against boys, Mahavir enrolled Geeta and Babita into the Sports Authority of India center in Sonipat.[13]

Details
Name Date of Birth Weight class
Geeta Phogat (1988-12-15) 15 December 198862 kg
Babita Kumari (1989-11-20) 20 November 198952 kg
Priyanka Phogat (1993-05-12) 12 May 199355 kg
Ritu Phogat (1994-05-02) 2 May 199448 kg
Vinesh Phogat (1994-08-25) 25 August 199448 kg
Sangeeta Phogat (1998-03-05) 5 March 199855 kg

The Bollywood film Dangal, released in India on 23 December 2016, is based on the lives of Phogat sisters Geeta and Babita.[14][15] Wrestler Pooja Dhanda was screened and originally selected to play the role of Babita Phogat in Dangal, which she could not play due to an injury.[16]

References
  1. Rajpal, Hina (19 August 2015). "Stories Of Sisterhood: The Phogat Sisters". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  2. Sengupta, Rudraneil (18 August 2016). "The Story Of These Six Wrestler Sisters From Haryana Is What You Should Read Today". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  3. Gupta, Gargi (10 August 2014). "Meet the medal winning Phogat sisters". DNA India. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  4. Sengupta, Rudraneil (20 September 2014). "Gender: Six ways to break the shackles". Livemint. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  5. Duggal, Saurabh (16 December 2015). "Wrestling league's power puff girls". Hindustan Times Mumbai. Retrieved 18 August 2016 – via PressReader.
  6. Basu, Suromitro (16 May 2016). "An ode to sisterhood: Yet another Phogat sets the benchmark for Indian women's wrestling". Yahoo!. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  7. Kanthwal, Gaurav (31 July 2010). "But hey, this is family..." The Times of India. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  8. Udas, Sumnima (28 July 2016). "The Indian female wrestlers breaking taboos and making history". CNN.com. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  9. Briggs, Simon (26 July 2011). "London 2012 Olympics: Phogat sisters are wrestling superstars in northern India". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  10. Women’s wrestling in India: Why Navjot Kaur’s gold medal is a watershed moment, Livemint, 31 March 2018.
  11. Joshi, Sonam (21 October 2016). "Meet Mahavir Singh Phogat, The Fascinating Wrestler Who Inspired Aamir Khan's 'Dangal'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  12. Agarwal, Stuti (29 August 2016). "Home-Schooling By Mr Phogat". Outlook India. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  13. Biswas, Sudipta (23 December 2016). "Dangal: Who is Mahavir Singh Phogat ?". india.com. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  14. Basu, Hindol (14 June 2015). "The hero behind 'Dangal'". The Times of India. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  15. Singh, Sat (9 May 2015). "Aamir Khan to host family of Phogat sisters". The Tribune. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  16. Once a judoka, Pooja Dhanda wants to win laurels in wrestling, Times of India, 25 Feb 2018.
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