A Gond tribe teenager packs a punch to become a national champ in Thai Boxing

Arjya Kumari Nayak, a 13-year-old girl from the Gond community in Keonjhar, Odisha, has kicked and punched her way to fame in martial arts.

Not only has the young teenager from the tribal community won medals at state-level sports events, she has also brought glory to Odisha at national championships, and is now preparing for the Asian Championship and World Championship.

The only child of Dayanishi Nayak, who is working as a driver for a mining company, Arjuna has been training in Thai boxing (also known as Muay Thai) since 2019. Originally from Bada Dadar village in Angul, Arjya now lives, studies and trains in Barbil, Keonjhar.

Last year, in 2022, she bagged the gold medal in the 32-36 kgs weight category at the 13th National Thai Boxing Championship (NTC) in Amritsar, Punjab. She followed that up with another victory at the 8th Thai Boxing National Federation Cup in 2022 at Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra.

Arjya’s parents, who come from an economically weaker background, are confident about making their daughter a world champion in Thai boxing.

“We are not going to sit and watch her become a domestic help, as many girls in our community end up becoming. So we sought the help of a noted coach in Thai Boxing to help her hone her talent, and have also arranged for her to have two private tutors to help her in her studies,” Subhashree Nayak, Arjya’s mother, told Gaon Connection.

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Arjya is a student of class nine in Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir in Barbil. Her dream is to become a Thai Boxing world champion, and an IPS officer. And, she knows that she has to work hard at both to realise her dream.

“To become a world champion, one has to practise regularly and learn different techniques sincerely. Similarly, one has to study hard to crack the UPSC exam to become an IPS Officer. I do both things to the best of my ability,” the young Thai boxing champ told Gaon Connection.

A series of victories

Arjya began training in Thai Boxing under coach Sachin Mahanta in 2019. In 2021, she walked tall with a silver medal in the 32-36 kg weight category at Mapusa, Goa at the 12th NTC.

“About 50 talents including Arjya were selected on this basis for the 12th NTC,” Subhendu Samantaray, Bhubaneswar-based president of the State Thai Boxing Association, told Gaon Connection.

“The first All Odisha Biju Patnaik Memorial Thai Boxing Championship was organised later that year at Talcher in Angul, where Arjya won gold in 32-36 Kgs weight category,” he added.

The following year in 2022, she bagged the gold medal at the 13th NTC in Amritsar, and another victory at the 8th Thai Boxing National Federation Cup at Mahabaleshwar.

Arjya has also won laurels in Karate. She won the silver in 2021 at the Federation Cup National Karate Championship (sub-junior) Raipur, Chhattisgarh, and the Gold at the 5th Shotokan Ryu Chidokai Karate-Do) State Championship in the 11-13 year age group the same year at Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha.

When she began training in 2019, Arjya was yet unsure if she really wanted to continue. Recalling his first meeting with Arjya, coach Sachin Mahanta said, “She turned up for practice along with 20 other students, and performed without much enthusiasm. I thought she had turned up at coaching under peer pressure,” laughed coach Mahanta.

“But now she is a ball of fire. She even helps me coach the basics to eight other children in the 5-10 year age group,” Mahanta, who is also general secretary of Mahanta Martial Art, Barbil, told Gaon Connection.

“Arjya has now set her eyes on the Asian Championship and World Championship. But she has to practise for three more years before making her international debut, because she has to increase her stamina and learn more techniques,” he added.

Focus on academics too

Dambarudhara Mahanta, Pradhan Acharya (Principal) of Saraswati Sishu Mandir, is proud of his student’s achievements. “She maintains a perfect balance between her studies and sport. She secured about 80 per cent in the class examination, and at the same time went about winning championships in martial arts,” he told Gaon Connection.

“I have English tuitions in the morning before school, and after school I go for tuitions in science and mathematics,” the teenager told Gaon Connection. She follows that up with training with her coach.

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To keep Arjya trained and in school, her parents have to spend about Rs 6,000 a month. If she has to go out of the state, the expenses increase.

“As the martial art has not received government recognition, the contestants bear all expenses, including entry fees, required for their participation in different championships. If the tournament is organised inside the state, entry fee varies between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. If it is held outside the state, the entry fee is between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000,” said State Thai Boxing Association president Samantaray.

It is a struggle, admitted Arjya’s father, whose salary is about Rs 12,000 a month. “I get Rs 20 per hour as an overtime allowance and Rs 150 daily for lunch. I save the entire amount for my daughter. In emergencies, my wife, who is a member of a self-help group also borrows from the SHG [self-help group] funds at 0.5 per cent interest,” Arjya’s father told Gaon Connection.

He said he owned some ancestral land back in his village, that he left 15 years ago in search of a job. “I had nearly three acres of land where my two brothers cultivate paddy today. Whenever I visit my village, they give me some rice that manages to look after part of our dietary needs,” he said.