SPECIAL REPORT

FIGHT NIGHT FOR STARVING FARMERS

BY MAMTA SEN

URL: http://www.covert.co.in/mamta.htm

Mumbai: The drought hit farmers of Sholapur and Chinchwad have found a novel way to scramble out of the deep economic gloom affecting their lives. Unlike his counterparts in Vidarbha, Dada Jadkar from Modamin village in Sholapur district did not want to end his life when his crops failed and he was left with no money or food to feed his family. He decided to beat the life out of others by joining the local wrestling group. Little did he know that this “hidden skill” would land him the job of a professional fighter with a sports entertainment company in Mumbai.
Dada is among a fast growing breed of farmers who are now migrating to the towns and cities to enrol themselves in local sporting events in the hope of earning some money. “I was completely frustrated as the crops had failed and there was no help from the State Government. I was running from pillar to post in search of some help, but was totally unsuccessful in getting a job. I even worked as a labourer for some time, but my luck changed when our local school’s PT [physical training] teacher fell sick, and I was asked to take his place for a small amount. The entire village knows that I love desi kushti [Indian wrestling] since I often practised with the boys at home,” Dada told Covert. He happened to meet the two men sent by the entertainment company to find “fighters” at the local panchayat office. They offered him a job and he signed the papers.
“I got Rs 3,000 for my first fight and that was enough to keep me going,” Dada said. At 40, he is the oldest among the fighters and comes to Mumbai every weekend to fight professionally. His family members, he said, were shocked when they got to know that he was getting paid to fight. “My mother thought I am going off to fight a war and would die and never come back,” he laughed, adding that his father was now happy with his “progress” and boasts about him in their village.
For 24-year-old Laxman Bhimrao Ghupe from Bhonsari village, it was his love for karate that made him represent neighbouring clubs in contests. This eventually landed him the job of a professional fighter. “The good thing about mixed martial arts is that it involves a wide variety of fighting techniques, from karate to kickboxing. It is also easy to learn,” Laxman said. He continues to farm in the village but is now able to augment the family’s finances with the money he earns as a freelance contractor with an electrical circuit factory a few kilometres from his village.
Like Dada, Laxman said he needed money and had explored various opportunities. “I started learning karate when in school, but little did I know that the sport would get me the money to feed my family of six. As traditional farmers no one else from my family had ventured into any other profession,” he said.

Prashant Kumar, founder and MD of Full Contact Entertainment and promoter of Full Contact Championships [FCC], which claims to be the country’s first ever mixed martial arts fight network, believes that professional fighting could definitely open up new avenues of employment for Indian farmers. “They are used to long hours of work on fields and physically too they are equipped to handle pressure. In the last two years that the FCC has been formed we have had many of our players from rural India,” he said. Many of them are in the age group of 18 to 28 years. He however refused to divulge how much he paid them: “We pay them per fight along with travelling and accommodation costs.”
Satyajit Raut and Vinod Shinde, talent hunters for FCC, who scout rural India looking for fighters, said that, till date, they have enrolled nearly 100 fighters from the villages. “When we make trips to remote villages we come across many farmers who are desperate for alternative means of employment. The conditions in which they live are terrible and disturbing. We manage to convince many of them to join us,” said Raut.
Shinde said that initially the farmers’ families raise major objections as they are against the idea of earning money through fighting. They do not want to part with their sons. “We explain to them that they will be paid for fighting, and then some of them agree. They still do not understand what their sons do exactly, but are content that for the time being their boys instead of being jobless, are getting some money to help the family,” he said. Shinde added that the word had spread, and they had been approached by farmers from Vidarbha. He claimed that many of the professional fighters were provided with insurance cover.
A success story is that of 22-year-old Babloo Yadav from Pimprigaon who has been training for nearly two years with FCC and has managed to win seven gold medals in a row at various mixed martial arts championships across the country. He has even won gold at the Asian Kickboxing Championship recently. “But to date no one is aware of my capabilities,” he said with a smile.
Prashant Kumar said that his company now wanted to promote the “fight night culture” in Mumbai, and then possibly in other cities as well. “We hope to introduce the concept of professional fighting which is a phenomenon abroad. Every fighter gets paid to participate, and those wanting some entertainment, can enjoy watching real fights instead of the mock ones promoted by WWF,” Kumar said. He is himself a martial arts fan, and the FCC, he said, was another way of promoting a hobby he has been pursuing seriously for the last two years. “I have already approached the sports ministry to look into this seriously, since if pursued well these championships have the chance of becoming much bigger than they are now,” he said [¼]