Greater Noida: Sarita Devi was devastated when she heard the news of a promising young boxer losing his life in the ethnic violence that had gripped Manipur.
As fate would have it, Thingom Rocky Meitei, a state medallist in boxing, belonged to her academy, and only a few months before Manipur plunged into turmoil, Sarita and her husband Thoiba had seen him off to his village where he was taking care of his ailing mother.
Sarita — a former world championship medallist — still regrets not having the time to enquire about Thingom when riots broke in his village Torbung, even as she got busy looking after coaches and families of other boxers who had been displaced due to the strife.
“It was heart-breaking. He was such a sweet boy and so dedicated to boxing. We later came to know that his family had to shift to a relief camp after their house was torched. Thingom had then joined village volunteer groups and in one of the violent incidents he lost his life,” Sarita told HT.
“A coach from our academy was also in trouble. His house was burnt. He and his family somehow managed to escape. We brought them to our academy.”
The sport has gone through a troubled time amidst the long-drawn conflict, but Thingom’s death in December 2023 left the boxing fraternity in Manpiur shellshocked.
“We still can’t believe it happened,” says coach ZV Jollyson, a former international boxer who is here with the Manipur team to participate in the Elite Women’s National Championship.
“When people are facing such a crisis, sports take a backseat,” says Jollyson who is also coach at the MC Mary Kom academy.
Fifteen months to that incident, boxing in Manipur is taking small steps toward recovery.
During the peak of violence in 2023 many boxing clubs had shut down. Once they restarted, parents were not willing to send their children to academy.
Some boxing centres that survived were were maligned by the stop-start schedule due to sporadic violence and curfews. State competitions dried up. A sub-junior state meet last year was called off midway as curfew was imposed due to an incident.
This year things have started looking up. The state is under President’s rule now.
A trial was organised to select team for the ongoing Championships here. A seven-member team is representing Manipur. Only one — Alena Devi — among them made it to the semi-finals and confirmed a bronze medal.
“We could train in our academy because it is residential and safe inside. The academy is located at a high security zone,” says Jollyson. “However most other academies and clubs in the state were not able to do regular training for the last 18 months. Many training centres have shut down.
Everytime there is curfew, training is interrupted. Travelling for competition was also not safe. Things are improving gradually.”
Sarita, who was here with the team for the tournament, says they managed to organise some tournaments this year. “We organised a police meet and the selected teams for Nationals through trials. You need to move on in life,” says Sarita who has about 100 children in her academy.
But in such tough times there was some silver lining. Sarita went to relief camps and brought some children to her academy. “We don’t want them to live in fear and violence. We took five children from relief camp last year and trained them at our academy.”
Two of them Anjali Devi and Langlen Chanu were selected for National sub-junior championship last year. Anjali Devi went on to win a medal.
“Their houses were destroyed and both families were staying in relief camps. We spoke to the parents and got them to our centre. If we can bring these kids who have suffered to sport, it will help them heal.”
Boxers from the hills, however, have not returned to her academy. Sarita recently got one of her former trainees, hailing from kuki community, inducted into a centre in Mizoram.
“It will take time for trust to develop between the two communities and the situation to normalise. When the hole is as big as a crater, it cannot be filled overnight. “
