In a small mud room, Elisaba Lakra hurriedly cooks lunch for her husband. It is 11am and she only has two hours before her eight-year-old twin girls return from school. As captain and coach of Khamarimunda village hockey team in India’s Sundargarh district, she needs to fit in practice before they do.
Lakra, 27, first picked up a hockey stick aged five and by 13 was playing for the Odisha state junior team. She was selected for a place at a training academy in Rourkela, host to the recent Hockey World Cup, about 70 miles (112km) from her village.
But for her parents, their daughter leaving home would have led to an unacceptable delay in her getting married.
“I was the only daughter with five brothers. Everyone at home was protective and felt responsible for my timely marriage. Thus when I got selected, nobody encouraged me. Plus, the training and the documentation before that would have required several trips to Rourkela – none of my brothers or father wanted to do that,” says Lakra.
So she was married at 16, to a local boy who knew her love for the sport and who himself played. For the next few years, Lakra raised her daughters, only playing the odd game with her husband in their back yard.
But in December 2018, Odisha hosted the Hockey World Cup for the first time. Holding an international event in the state, which the Indian government has been trying to convert into the country’s sports capital, led to a new respect for hockey.
Parents started seeing it as a prestigious career option for their children. The state government promised jobs to those selected for state and national teams. There was a great surge in street hockey. Odisha committed to creating at least one hockey school club in each of its 30 districts and set up new academies.
“This push to turn Odisha into the hockey hub of India has shown results and is inspired by the fact that Sundargarh district alone has produced more than 60 national and international hockey players,” says sports journalist Sandeep Mishra.
The increased interest changed Lakra’s life. In two years, she has built a team of married women, her age and older, who practise daily despite their family commitments. The team came second in a recent inter-village tournament.
“I cannot play professionally any more, but I am glad that I still get to play. Since these two World Cups (2018 and 2023), the attitude towards the game has changed and we are seen as the shining stars of the village,” says Lakra, who started her players off using bamboo sticks and a custard apple as a ball, before they got some proper equipment.
Lakra is not the only woman who has benefited from this change. Gayatri Kisan, 21, is one of 28 training at the Sports Authority of India academy in Sundargarh. She was selected six years ago from her village of Bamra.
“My parents were initially apprehensive but knowing the respect and fame that comes with the sport has changed their perception,” she says. “After the 2018 World Cup, they have been really supportive of my decision. They now wish for me to play internationally too.
Tanisha Ekka, 13, the daughter of a rice farmer from Mohuljore, was selected by the academy in 2021 and now plays at national level. She is part of a fine tradition. The academy has trained such players as the India men’s vice-captain Amit Rohidas and Deep Grace Ekka, a defender in the women’s national side.
“We have seen an influx of players on the admission waiting list in the past few years. Parents are now encouraging their children to pick up hockey as they see the respect given to players representing their country. Another reason for the interest among tribal people, who come from a marginal background, is that selection promises a government job,” says Pradeep Kumar Sarangi, women’s coach at the academy. All that’s needed now, she says, is an improvement in the academy’s infrastructure.
