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Earned international accolade for State in Karate, Rajouri girl’s achievements remain unrecognised
Parents obtain loan to send daughter to S Africa for competition
Ankit Kessar

Early Times Report

Sunderbani, Jan 28: Despite facing numerous hardships in pursuit of achieving her goal, Azamat Bibi (20) of village Mawa Patrara near LOC of Rajouri district, who earned international accolade for her country as well as for her State but her achievements, were not given worth for what she deserved.
In order to realize her dream, Azamat’s parents, who lived a small village near LOC of tehsil Sunderbani , sacrificed a lot. Her father Mohammad Iqbal, who is retired Army personal, took loan from relatives to collect Rs 3.50 lakhs for sending her daughter to South Africa to participate in 9th Common Wealth Karate Championship in Durban, which held in 2018 from 29-11-2018 to 2-12-2018, where she won bronze medal for India.
Although her family’s financial condition was not so good, yet she didn’t lose her courage and continue to focus on her Karate practice due to her parents’ strong support for her. She has been practicing Karate for the last seven years.
“She was just 13 years old, when she started practicing Karate. She was very promising girl and very quick in learning Karate. Her passion for this game took her to many steps ahead in this span of time. She participated in district, State, National and International level competitions earned fame by winning them,” said her father Mohd Iqbal.
Despite being from a conservative background, where girls are hardly allowed to opt for sports particularly Karate, she took this sport as a challenge and had to face severe criticism initially but due to her parents support and with her continuous perseverance and efforts she succeeded in learning this sport.
“I took coaching from Charan Singh Slathia, who is in this field for the last 18-20 years. He trained me for international competition. I participated in all levels including District, State, National and International and won many medals but I didn’t get any appreciation from State Government for my achievements,” Azamat said.
Azamat has three sisters and a brother. She is youngest among her sisters. She gives coaching of Karate in private schools to assist her family as well as to instil passion among budding talents in the district.
“My sole motive of giving Karate coaching to young children especially to girls is to make them strong in respect of self defence. With increasing rape cases, self defence for females has become important to fight in difficult. I have made myself so strong that I can fight with ten people at a time,” she added.
Expressing her resentment against the State Government for overlooking her rare feat, she said that she had to face tough time due to financial constraint in pursuance of goal but nobody from government came forward to give her helping hand. “Government gives only slogans of Beti Bachao, Beti Padao but never makes efforts on ground in real sense. I tried very hard to get some financial assistance from government but never received any response or help. I represented India in 9th Common Wealth Karate Championship in Durban in 2018 and brought laurel in 2018 but was not honoured by state government. Although District Administration Rajouri, on ‘National Voter Day’ nominated me its’ brand Ambassador and I am feeling happy but administration should take some more steps to provide all kind of help to girls in achieving their goals,” she said further adding that administration should give its focus in providing facilities to girls.
“If government provides me assistance, I want to give Karate coaching to all girls in the district. Besides, I want to express my thanks to DDC Rajouri Nazeer Sheikh, Dy Director Bilar Mir, DPO Rajour Dr Khabir, ADC Rajouri Sher Singh for honouring me on National Voters Day,” she said..............