Here, under-privileged students meet each other like family members and learn many new things. Showing them the way is Sangeeta Rana, a sports teacher and National Institute of Sports-qualified boxing coach. She tells them stories in the form of tips and instructions, which help the students script their own success stories in the field of boxing.

Besides winning the gold in a state championship, Sangeeta’s students have brought home several silver and bronze medals from sub-junior national championships.

All this has not been, however, an easy task, says Sangeeta. “It seemed an uphill task to train these players when I joined the school three years ago. I wanted to encourage women boxers in Chandigarh and approached a few students whom I thought were physically strong. Their hard work made things easy and it is good to see them win medals in state and national championships,” says Sangeeta, who has played two national championships herself.

Sunita was one talent which came raw to Sangeeta and she furnished her into a fine pugilist. “I cherish my fight with my idol Mary Kom’s sister Nehal the most. Manipuri girls are physically and technically superior to us in all respects, but we showed them we were not behind them by handling her a 22-1 defeat at the sub-junior national championship in Andhra Pradesh last year,” says the 14-year-old girl from Nepal.

Following in her footsteps was Balwinder who saw Sunita take a bout and it changed his life. “What surprised me the most was that she would even beat boys of her age with the red gloves on. My short height initially came in the way, but seeing my passion Sangeeta Madam encouraged me to go ahead. I am totally in love with this game now,” says the 13-year-old son of an auto-rickshaw driver.

Boxing was an alien word to all these students before they enrolled themselves in Sikhya School. “We had never heard or seen boxing. It was here that we learnt what boxing was all about. And our knowledge has certainly increased after the Olympics. Sangeeta Madam took great pains to teach us the basics of the game. It feels nice when our hard work is rewarded in the form of medals,” says Gurpreet, whose father works as a mechanic.

The school takes care of all the facilities, including education, food, books and practice kit. Boxing, meanwhile, helps the children in another way. “The places where we live are not very safe for girls. Learning boxing has the added advantage of using it for self-defence,” says Tasleema, another budding talent.

Most of these children live in Bapu Dham Colony, Burail and other such areas.