Wrestling against the odds

Geeta Phogat is unique among women in India.

She's making history as the nation's first female wrestler to qualify for the Olympics taking place this year in London.

Geeta's now training at Asia's largest sports institute in Punjab state but life could have been very different.

SOUNDBITE: GEETA PHOGAT SAYING (Hindi):

"If I was not a wrestler, or if my father hadn't been a good coach, I would have been married by now."

Geeta started training in an enclosure adjoining a cattle shed in her village home.

Her father was her coach.

Her mother says he gave her a very hard time.

SOUNDBITE: DAYA KAUR, GEETA PHOGAT'S MOTHER, SAYING (Hindi):

"She used to get thrashings from her father. He used to keep a stick. If she was late, even by one minute in the morning, she used to get it. If she performed badly during practice she would face the stick as well."

Back in Geeta's home state of Haryana, her father still coaches other girls including her youngster sister Babita.

Babita's also an international wrestler.

She bagged a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

But here wrestling is widely viewed as a male sport.

Haryana state is notorious for its gender bias.

Sex-selective abortion is a regular practice among parents anxious to avoid the financial burden of having daughters.

Geeta's father Mahavir Singh, himself a former wrestler, says poverty was a big obstacle.

SOUNDBITE: MAHAVIR SINGH, FATHER OF GEETA PHOGAT, SAYING (Hindi):

"Milk, vegetables, everything is so expensive and I had to provide five daughters with an athlete's diet. That would cost a minimum of 200 rupees (3.6 U.S. dollars) a day and I had five athletic daughters which means at least 1, 000 rupees (18.4 dollars) a day. Where do I get that money from."

Against the odds the Phogat sisters are celebrities in their home village.

Now Geeta's carrying the nation's hope for an Olympic gold in London, and the aspirations of more young Indian women that their futures too can differ from traditional expectations.

Paul Chapman, Reuters