Mahavir Phogat trains daughters in Balali
In Balali, a Haryana village where girls were expected to marry young and stay out of the akhara, former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat trained his daughters Geeta and Babita on the mud pit and against boys, despite open ridicule from neighbours. Geeta won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and the family's success helped open the sport to girls from the same conservative villages. The case shows one household's defiance, backed by a visible result, shifting a community norm around gender and the body.