SPORTS
"Taekwondo is not fashionable"
Taru Bahl

Pilates, gymming, even yoga have managed to be in any young girl’s daily regimen, but not taekwondo, which is considered unglamorous, laments Grandmaster Rachana Chaurasia, Asia’s first woman to be awarded Taekwondo’s 6th Dan Black Belt by the International Taekwondo Federation, Austria.

Rachana has been a Taekwondo instructor for nearly three decades at the Taekwondo Federation of Delhi. It is an independent body set up by her in the 1980s, which has till date trained more than 10 lakh students and has about 162 schools and colleges as clients. It hasn’t been a smooth ride for a young girl who saw her first taekwondo demonstration at the age of six and knew she had to pursue it. Hailing from a conservative family in Nagpur, she had to fight her way through to pursue her dreams. Till she was 17, she struggled in Nagpur, doing short courses and learning by reading and practicing on her own. When she got a call from a fellow-Taekwondo instructor (whom she ended up marrying) during one of the state-level competitions to come to Delhi to pursue opportunities, she did not realise her family would resist to the extent of disowning her.

Coming to Delhi, she found that there were hardly any female instructors in colleges and schools. She started by teaching at Gargi, a girls college. Operating at a modest fee and not saying no to any school, even those which barely managed 5 to 10 students, she kept adding schools to her list.

Interestingly, she tells you that karate is easier than taekwondo. But taekwondo can be learnt at any age. Originating from Korea, it gained popularity in Europe. Its efficacy in strengthening the back muscles has been recognised as also the fact that it leads to flexibility that allows you to navigate through advancing years with ease.

Her experience of working with girls’ schools, colleges, parents and girls themselves has convinced her that in India there is a complete lack of focus on self defence. Many usually think that a fortnight-long workshop would suffice. Those parents who do enrol their girls in say karate, judo and taekwondo, have little knowledge of the three sports. And once the girls enter teens and are more conscious about their figures and other pursuits, this is the first thing that gets struck from their list.

Over the years, Rachana wanted the right sort of people to teach the sport and give it a compassionate human face. She interacted with the people who stayed in bastis and motivated them to train as coaches. Today, she has a loyal band of nearly 200 instructors who have been with her for six to eight years.

What has been most heart warming is her work with the youth of a sweeper’s colony in Delhi. For decades this community had not been able to transition to any other vocation. By training them in taekwondo and making them feel good about what they do was a personal triumph for her.

At a recent international taekwondo competition organised by her in Delhi, more than 6000 contestants took part. Rachana is hoping that the sport gains traction. Maybe a Bruce Lee kind of movie is needed to make taekwondo as exciting as kung fu or karate.

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