Boxing has emerged as a viable alternative for young Muslim women in one of the poorest suburbs of Kolkata in Kidderpore. They look at boxing as their way to fight the poverty in their society, to break away from gender stereotypes, and also against a largely conservative Muslim society. There are believed to be over 200 women boxers in India today, out of which the majority of these boxers are Muslim boxers from this very part of Kolkata.

Four young Muslim sisters, Zainab, Sughra, Bushra and Zaleen spend almost 8 hours everyday boxing and training at the local Kidderpore Physical Centre. They live with their parents, and one brother in one small room. The father Hakeem is terminally ill and refers to himself as bekaar (useless), and the mother is the breadwinner of the family doing menial jobs at a nearby middle class residential complex.

The younger brother Md. N.N. Raza, is malnourished, and has been sick for over a year, and the family struggles to provide a healthy meal to all the children. But despite the lack of protein and nutrients, these sisters never miss their boxing training. But the mother wonders for how long can they live up to their stamina as opposed to their diet? Yet they never fail to be at the stadium at 4.30am for a four-hour grueling session. This is followed by an hour at a local gym for some weight training. And back again at 5pm for another 3 hour session.  These girls train in an open ring under florescent lights with fireflies and mosquitoes hovering about their heads, and exercise in an outdoor area on a pavement surrounded by slums.

"If I am going to box, I should be able to handle the consequences… All this talk about Muslim women boxing being ‘degrading’ and ‘outcastes’ and for others ‘risky’ and ‘too hard work’ strikes me as very comic. Is it any more degrading than scrubbing floors?" asked Bushra.

Boxing is a sport, which involves a display of physical strength, violence and masculinity – traits that one often associate with men rather than women. When women start playing this sport, they are not only mastering the techniques of the game but also crossing the gender boundaries and transgressing into a male sport. I found that the male boxers often help their women counterparts in training rather than seeing them as a threat. But if the women boxer starts training more rigorously than them and wins medals, there is an uncomfortable silence. Some are jealous while others are in awe of them.

Women's boxing was officially introduced in India in 2000, and since then the sport is slowly becoming well established, and a lot of young girls are taking it seriously. This year the national team is being touted as one of the favourites at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. And women’s boxing will make its debut at the Olympics in London 2012. But like other sports in India (except for cricket) boxing still lags behind in infrastructure and development, but sometimes small steps can go a long way. The girls of Kidderpore are up for it, either way.