In the guts of Dhanana village, in Haryana’s Bhiwani district, the place most homes have unplastered brick partitions, one conspicuously stands out. It’s a sprawling kothi or bungalow, only a stone’s throw away from the bus cease. A temple spire rises from its courtyard, reaching for the gray sky.
It’s the overcast morning of August 4. Two days earlier, the curtains had come down on the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Contained in the kothi, there isn’t any time to attend for the solar. Regardless of a light-weight drizzle, two painters stand on ladders on reverse corners of the compound, brushes in hand. They’ve a day to finish their work. Sakshi Chaudhary is coming dwelling, with a gold medal.
Contained in the baithak (sitting room), there may be loads of commotion. Sakshi’s father, Manoj Dhanda, a farmer, is pacing, cellphone glued to his ear. He’s making an attempt to finalise a Haryana cupboard minister for the felicitation.
A number of ft away, his good friend Wazir Singh, a former serviceman, is negotiating with a neighborhood Ragini singer — a folks artwork type that blends poetry, storytelling, and music. Ticking off his listing, he says, “500 chairs for the elders. Ladoos, jalebis, sizzling tea, espresso, and paneer pakoras for everybody.”
Within the nook, Kaptan Ghanghas, a brick kiln proprietor, is multitasking. Shouting directions to a person close by, he says, “I need 150 banners. All up by tomorrow. I need your complete 20 kilometre-route [from Bhiwani city to Dhanana] lined.”
He then picks up his cellphone and asks in the identical authoritative tone, “What number of bikes? What number of tractors? Discuss to all of the academies close by. I want numbers.”
Tons of of bikes, tractors, and automobiles have been organized for the procession for Sakshi and Priya Ghanghas, additionally a gold medallist from the identical village. Invites have been despatched to all 84 khap panchayats.
India’s record-breaking boxing campaign on the 2026 Commonwealth Video games in Glasgow, which culminated in 10 medals — seven gold and three silver — was powered by an unlikely however acquainted power: Bhiwani, popularly known as India’s Mini Cuba of boxing. 4 of those gold medals have been received by ladies nurtured within the city’s celebrated boxing tradition: Sakshi Chaudhary (51 kg), Preeti Sai Pawar (54 kg), Jaismine Lamboria (57 kg), and Priya Ghanghas (60 kg).
A smiling Wazir sums up the temper: “Our daughters are our VIPs.”
A dream realised a era later
For Sakshi, the highway to Commonwealth glory started 14 years in the past when she was simply 12 years previous.
Manoj nonetheless remembers the day he took Sakshi and her elder brother Aman, now a Captain within the Indian Military, to a Haryana authorities expertise identification programme designed to identify sporting expertise at an early age. “She scored an ideal 21 out of 21 factors,” he recollects with delight. “On the time, each teenager in Bhiwani wished to develop into the subsequent Vijender Singh (who received a bronze medal on the 2008 Beijing Olympics). Sakshi too caught the boxing bug.”
Selecting the game modified her life. Now an Indian Military havaldar, Sakshi produced one of many most interesting performances of her profession in Glasgow. Dealing with England’s Ruby White within the 51-kg remaining, the Indian dominated all three rounds with composure and aggression, ending Ruby’s unbeaten streak of 68 consecutive fights.
“We spoke to Sakshi a day earlier than the ultimate,” says Manoj. “She instructed us she would give it her greatest shot. We watched each second of the bout with bated breath. When the referee raised her hand, what we felt is past phrases.”
Sitting quietly behind her husband, her face lined with a veil, Sakshi’s mom Sheila says that following her daughter’s profession has taught her a stunning quantity about boxing. “I do know phrases like knockout, charging, uppercut, and hook,” she says, shyly.
Sport has all the time been near Sheila’s coronary heart. As a youngster, she performed kabaddi. Her father’s good friend, the Haryana wrestler Chandgi Ram, tried to persuade her household to permit her to take up wrestling, however they by no means agreed.
Right now, Sheila feels that her personal unfulfilled sporting dream has been realised via her daughter. “I’m simply ready to hug her,” she says, her voice choking with emotion.
Channeling the power
Priya’s household eagerly awaits the return of the youngest of Haryana’s 4 ladies boxing gold medallists. The household just lately moved from Dhanana to Dabra Colony in Bhiwani, the place preparations to welcome their champion are in full swing. A cake sits prepared on the desk.
Her mom, Meera, recollects the emotional second when she and her husband, Mahender, a stone crusher contractor, acquired Priya at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Worldwide Airport within the early hours of August 4. “I had ready churma (mashed up roti in ghee and jaggery) for her,” Meera says. “She was completely satisfied to eat it after returning dwelling.”
In accordance with her household, Priya and her elder brother Neeraj have been so energetic and mischievous that their dad and mom channelled their boundless power into sport. “It turned out to be the very best determination we made,” says Meera.
Vivid, disciplined, and wanting to be taught, Priya impressed her coach instantly. Inside simply two days of coaching, the coach instructed the household that the lady had the potential to go far.
That prediction got here true. At simply 20, Priya has won a gold at the Commonwealth Games. Her success has additionally introduced monetary stability to the household, with Priya becoming a member of the Indian Railways in October 2025.
Meera says many gifted athletes don’t get the alternatives that her daughter acquired finally. “There’s little assist earlier than gamers develop into profitable,” she says. “I do know many gifted kids who needed to stop boxing as a result of their households merely couldn’t afford the bills. The federal government helps solely after a participant wins main tournaments.”
The women who deliver glory
For a area lengthy related to certainly one of India’s most skewed intercourse ratios, Bhiwani and neighbouring Charkhi Dadri at the moment are telling a unique story. In 2011, Bhiwani had 886 females per 1,000 males, in contrast with the nationwide common of 943. Right now, daughters are more and more seen not as a burden, however as a supply of delight.
“Persons are focusing extra on their daughters than their sons,” says Sheila. “They’ve realised that ladies can typically obtain extra if they’re given the proper alternatives. They’ll develop into medical doctors, engineers, and convey glory to the nation via sports activities.” In distinction, she worries that many younger boys are falling prey to drug dependancy.
Few individuals have witnessed the change extra carefully than Kaptan, who credit Manoj with planting the seeds of a boxing revolution. “It was Sakshi’s father who satisfied many households to ship their daughters to the boxing ring,” he says. “This yr, two ladies from our village have develop into Commonwealth champions. In 2022, Nitu Ghanghas received gold on the 2022 Commonwealth Video games. If our village is producing champions immediately, a big share of that credit score belongs to him.”
Wazir says a public felicitation for Sakshi and the opposite champions is being deliberate to not simply honour them, but in addition to encourage the subsequent era. “If these ladies can do it, then the daughters of each household right here can do it,” he says. “The message to oldsters is straightforward: assist your daughters and provides them each alternative doable.”
Jagdish Singh, founding father of the Bhiwani Boxing Membership that produced Olympic medallist Vijender Singh and others, says each medal received by a feminine boxer attracts extra ladies to the game. “After Nitu received the gold in 2022, the variety of ladies becoming a member of the membership surged,” he says. “Vijender’s Olympic bronze was the primary massive turning level.”
At his membership, girls and boys now practice in practically equal numbers. He additionally runs a hostel for 20 ladies; 16 of them at the moment keep there.
Singh, who coached Sakshi, expects one other spike after these Video games. “Extra ladies will now take up boxing as a profession,” he says.
Vijender Singh says all of the 5 Bhiwani gold medallists — 4 ladies and Sachin Siwach — are from close by villages: Mittathal, Dhanana, and Badesara. “Most of them in these villages need to escape poverty and make a reputation. That starvation is what drives Bhiwani boxing,” he explains.
Household legacy
Jaismine Lamboria, the third lady gold medallist from Bhiwani, believes that the most important problem for a lot of ladies begins lengthy earlier than they step into a hoop. “In contrast to boys, who typically merely inform their households about their ambitions, ladies ceaselessly have to hunt permission to play, journey, and pursue their goals,” she says. Social expectations and household issues, she provides, will be obstacles lengthy earlier than coaching even begins.
On the similar time, she sees encouraging indicators of change. “Households have gotten extra supportive, ladies are receiving better alternatives, and establishments are opening extra doorways for feminine athletes,” she says. These developments, she believes, present that the taking part in area is steadily turning into equal.
Gold medalist Jaismine Lamboria along with her dad and mom at their dwelling in Bhiwani district of Haryana.
| Picture Credit score:
Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
The primary lady boxer to affix the Indian Military, 25-year-old Jaismine comes from a household steeped in boxing. Her great-grandfather, Captain Hawa Singh, received the Nationwide Championships for 11 consecutive years, whereas her uncles, Sandeep and Parvinder, are worldwide boxers.
When she first shared her ambition along with her mom whereas in Class 8, the household had some issues, however they by no means discouraged her. Her uncle satisfied them that if athletes corresponding to Sakshi Malik and P.V. Sindhu might deliver glory to the nation, Jaismine might do the identical. With a coach within the household, her boxing journey took off.
However Jaismine’s rise was not clean. Earlier than the Commonwealth Video games, she battled a chronic sickness that left her with recurring fever for weeks, disrupting her coaching and inflicting vital weight reduction. She had little time to arrange for the competitors. But, she fought her approach to the ultimate, the place she defeated a seasoned former Commonwealth champion to assert gold. “For me, the main focus was by no means on my opponent’s repute however on giving my greatest within the ring,” she says.
She has a message for aspiring ladies boxers: “You might be second to none. Select your dream, hold shifting ahead, and by no means cease till you obtain it. All the time keep in mind, you’re sturdy.”
Reluctant athlete
As a youngster, Preeti Sai Pawar wished to concentrate on lecturers. She by no means imagined that boxing would develop into her life’s calling.
Preeti’s household moved from Badesara village in Bhiwani to Meham in Rohtak to offer higher academic and coaching alternatives for his or her kids. The daughter of a Haryana Police Assistant Sub-Inspector, Preeti initially resisted boxing regardless of fixed encouragement from her father and her coach, Vinod Pawar.
“I saved telling my father that I’d moderately research,” she recollects. “The coaching was painful and my limbs would ache. However steadily, I began having fun with it.”
The turning level got here in 2019 when she clinched her first gold medal on the faculty nationals. “That was once I realised that I wished to pursue boxing critically,” she says.
After successful bronze on the 2022 Asian Video games and representing India on the Paris Olympics in 2024, she received a gold on the Asian Boxing Elite Championships in March 2026. On the Commonwealth Video games, she showcased tactical maturity, dominating her Canadian opponent with aggressive but calculated boxing. After comfortably successful the opening two rounds, she entered the ultimate spherical with confidence, experimenting with new expertise and sealing a snug victory.
Her performances have additionally earned her a uncommon distinction off the ring. Final December, Preeti grew to become the primary lady boxer to be straight recruited into the Indian Military as a Junior Commissioned Officer (naib subedar). “Representing the Military provides me immense delight,” she says.
Preeti is within the remaining yr of her B.Sc. programme in Well being and Bodily Schooling at Pretty Skilled College, which has supported her by facilitating on-line examinations throughout competitions.
The 4 ladies boxers have overcome distinctive challenges, however they now share one dream: to make it to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
