Baghpat village gets state’s first ‘women only ‘gym
In keeping with the administration’s promise to villagers, district magistrate of Baghpat Rajkamal Yadav inaugurated the state’s first dedicated gym for girls in Bijrol village on Saturday.
The district magistrate claimed that it was the first such dedicated gym for girls in the state and inspired by the women’s excitement, six more gram panchayats of the district had sent him requests to establish similar gyms in their areas.
The gym has been established in the panchayat ghar of Bijrol, which is a historic village with a population of over 20,000. The great revolutionary Baba Shahmal of Bijrol fought against the British during the First War of Independence in 1857 and made the supreme sacrifice for the motherland. As many as 32 other villagers were also hanged to death for supporting Baba Shahmal.
The gym has six machines for multiple exercises. Yadav shared that over Rs 6 lakh had been spent on making the gym from account of the Gram Nidhi. “We can extend it further after seeing the response,” said Yadav, adding that villagers, especially women and girls were quite excited during its inauguration. “A few of them even assured to add more machines by spending their own money and to take care of its maintenance too,” said a visibly overwhelmed DM.
The district administration had a plan to establish it in the last week of March this year but it was delayed due to the second wave of pandemic. “The project was delayed due to the second Covid-19 wave and we started it again only after the corona cases subsided,” said Yadav.
Fitness freak Priyanka Sharma of the village has been deputed as trainer in the gym. Priyanka’s association with the gym has an interesting story behind it.
In the second week of March, divisional commissioner of Meerut Surendra Singh visited the village and held a ‘ Jan Chaupal’ to listen to the problems of people. Singh was taken aback when Priyanka asked him to set up a gym for girls in the village. “It was for the first time in my career that a village girl demanded a gym,” said Singh who immediately approved it and directed district magistrate Rajkamal Yadav to work on it. “We announced to set up the gym in 15 days,” said the DM.
An overjoyed Priyanka said, “What I dreamt of and demanded has transformed into a reality now” and claimed that village girls and women were happy and excited and they had started using the gym.
The gym is being run in two shifts: 5 am to 11 am and 4 pm to 6 pm. Priyanka herself is the mother of three children but has a passion for fitness and sports, like weightlifting. “I have a dream to bring a medal for the country like Mirabai Chanu,” said Priyanka who teaches village girls and women how to use machines and do multiple exercises.
The gym will also be a boon for those girls and women who aim for recruitment in police and armed forces. Priyanka shared that many girls of Bijrol and neighbouring villages aspired for police and other jobs with uniform. These girls and women needed to maintain their physical fitness to qualify in medical tests during recruitment. They used to attend a gym in neigbouring town Baraut, which is six kilometres from Bijrol, but now they will get the facility at their doorstep.
She said that many village women had also joined the gym to reduce their fat. “We seldom get the opportunity to attend a gym because of hectic home life but availability of gym in the village would help us access it for fitness,” said Rekha and Anita of the village.