Indian Woman Boxer may go to the Olympics

I just found this really great article,  which I think really encapsulates a lot of different themes that we are going to address/have addressed in this class. Chaitali is a fifteen year-old young woman from outside Kolkata who has been training for three years and hopes to go to the Olympics for boxing. What stands out about her and her situation is that her boxing is not just a hobby or something that she does for fun, it is the vehicle she hopes will help her and her family escape from poverty. Her mother is raising her children alone and makes only thirty to fifty dollars a month; chaitali hopes that whaetever money she can make from a career in boxing will be enough to support her sister and her mother as well as herself. She has to face discrimination from everyone in the boxing community and her neighborhood  who tell her that she will be unable to find a husband because she will be ‘ruined’ by the boxing.

Chaitali not only has to face  discrimination because she is a young woman, but also because of the place where she comes from in terms of class and social position. She comes from a home led by a single mother in a very poor neighborhood; Chaitali has a lot of challenges ahead of her, which I think this article demonstrates quite well.  It’s a clear picture of the systemic and institutional roadblocks which many girls in developing countries must face.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading/watching Half the Sky, which I think demonstrates this really well.