Banaras Girl Who Clinched Gold For India, Triumph Over Her Poverty She Blazes Like A Star

Punam Yadav is an Indian weightlifter who won a Bronze medal in the women's 63 kg weight class at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow, where the gold medal was won by Olauwatoyin Adesanmi of Nigeria. She also won a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia. 

She won the gold medal by lifting a total of 222 kg: 100 kg in Snatch and 122 kg in Clean and jerk in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in women's 69 kg division. She had won a bronze medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games by lifting a total weight of 202 kg, 88 kg in snatch, and 114 kg in Clean and jerk.

This victory also made Yadav the third woman to win gold for India in the women’s 69 kg category at the CWG 2018.

But the path to gaining a victory of gold for the Banaras girl was not so easy.

HER EARLY LIFE 

She was born on 9, July 1995 in the house of a small farmer family of Kailash and Urmila Yadav. She grew up lending a helping hand to her parents in a Benaras village. From tilling the soil to feeding cattle, Punam accomplished it entirely!

But her parents always knew, Punam, the fifth among five daughters and two sons, wanted to do something different.

Kailash, her father observes how Karnman Malleswari, who is also the first Indian woman to have won an individual Olympic medal (bronze) at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was Punam’s biggest inspiration to take up weightlifting.

In an interview, he said - “When Karnman Malleswari won Bronze for the country, I wanted my daughter to win a medal for the country too. She started training in 2011. She was so good, she would manage to find time for household chores and farm work in addition to her training.”

He expresses his underprivileged background which didn't allow them, to afford the diet Punam required during her training. So, there were several nights where exhausted Punam would return from a day of heavy training just to sleep on an empty stomach.

"But it wasn’t long until her guru, Swami Agdanand, sent her to social worker Satish Fauji, who helped her with finances. She started receiving Rs. 20,000 a month to spend on her training," her father added.

After 3 years of intense training to become an international weightlifter, when Punam finally got a chance to represent India at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, her parents lacked the fund to support her. So her father sold their family buffalo to fund Punam’s trip. 

With her devotion and extreme efforts, she achieved the heights of success in such a state like Uttar Pradesh where sports as a carrier is impossible in this scenario being a girl. 

“When Punam won a medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, We didn’t even have enough money to distribute sweets. People used to taunt us when our girl went out to play. Today they greet us with respect,” said Punam’s mother, Urmila Yadav.

HER PRESENT 

She completed her undergraduate degree from BHU Kashi Vidyapeeth. Now, she works as a Senior Ticket Collector in the Indian Railways and she is currently posted at the Varanasi Cantt. Railway Station. While her brothers Ashutosh and Abhishek are national-level hockey players, Punam’s sisters Shashi and Pooja, who started as weightlifters eventually quit due to their family’s weak financial background.

UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has now announced a cash prize of Rs 50 lakh for Yadav and even offered her the post of a gazetted officer. 

Punam’s rise to becoming a global icon is an inspirational saga for the youth of India to inspire them to chase their dreams. It reminds of a few lines of quotation -

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” ―Confucius

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