When she was in Class VIII, P. Anitha learnt how it feels to wear the boxing gloves. She fell for the sport hook, jab and cross. Eking out a living running a petty shop, her parents allowed her to pursue boxing on one condition: she would hang up the gloves once she completed schooling and started collegiate education. Anitha agreed to the condition back then, but did not comply with it. Today, her parents are glad she did not.
Sangeetha R. had the street fighter in her, and would get into brawls at the drop of a hat. The streets of Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar in Perumbur being tough, Sangeetha’s mother Dilli Rani feared for her daughter’s safety. And she decided to channel the girl’s pugnacity into the boxing ring. Today, the mother’s decision has been vindicated.
Anitha and Sangeetha make up the winsome six of the women’s boxing team at Agurchand Manmull Jain College in Meenambakkam. They did their college and families proud by winning medals at the C.M. Trophy State Boxing Championship 2025 held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
All of them had more than competitors in the boxing ring to beat. They had financial, social and cultural odds to beat.
Anitha relocated from a remote village in Madurai one-and-a-half years ago after clearing the ‘TALENT’ programme conducted by Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT). The youngest of three sisters, Anitha hails from a social milieu where girls were married off early, in their early twenties. Anitha persuaded her parents to let her chase her dreams. “Give me three more years,” she asked them.
