Indian teen from LA gives self-defence training to Bareilly girl dropouts

Bareilly: When an assailant grasped the hand of Taravati (who uses only her first name), the young girl twisted his arm and pushed him away, and then kicked him. Taravati, a class XII student, received appreciation from other girls and even from the assailant for her defensive skills.

Taravati is one of the 50 girls of Dhaneli village under Meerganj tehsil of Bareilly district who were briefly forced to discontinue studies due to continuous harassment by a group of youths on the way to school. They resumed studies only after police increased security in the area.

However, when Pooja Nagpal, 18, a Los Angeles resident and second-degree black belt in taekwondo, read the TOI report on the incident, she decided to visit Dhaneli to give the girls some handy self-defence tips.

“After I read the TOI report, I felt bad for the girls. I decided to visit this village to make them confident so they can take on the assailants on their own in future,” the teenager said. Nagpal has been learning different forms of martial arts since she was 12 and has been running her own organisation: For a Change — Defence.

“The Nirbhaya gangrape case really touched me and I decided to train girls in India during my summer vacation. I have conducted workshops for girls in remote areas of Himachal Pradesh and orphanages in Delhi and Chandigarh. I was teaching at a school for the visually impaired in Chandigarh when I read about the these school girls and came here,” she said.

Her father, colleged teacher Pawan Nagpal, “When she said she wanted to visit Bareilly, my friends told me the place is not safe. I was reluctant to come here but she had made up her mind. It was a proud moment to train these girls.”

On Friday, Pooja trained 50 girls from Dhaneli and another 150 from neighbouring villages at Dunka Inter College, nearly 40 km from Bareilly. “The girls were initially shy and kept on saying that they will not be able to punch hard. However, after a few rounds, they opened up and quickly learned a few defensive techniques. I wish I had more time to teach them but my college starts this month,” said Pooja, who will now study electrical engineering and computer science at University of California, Berkeley.

Devwati (who uses only her first name), a class XII said, “The workshop was very informative. If anybody tries to harass me, I now know how to teach him a lesson.”

Nikita Soman, from class XI, said that she will keep practising the techniques and teach other girls in her neighbourhood.

Principal of the school, Vinod Kumar said, “We will make sure the girls continue to practice these defensive skills in their games period.”