No school, no boxing: Sahoo helps underprivileged children get new lease of life

When Sudarshan Sahoo, 52, was in fourth standard, he lost his father and due to the financial condition of the family he couldn’t continue his schooling beyond sixth. Because of the family’s struggle to make ends meet, he was forced to earn at an early age and during free time he started visiting a local wrestling club in Puri, Odisha, and there he got fascinated with a hanging boxing kit. He became a self taught boxer and later a boxing coach.

For survival he opened a garage at jail road in 1990 and started giving free boxing coaching to the underprivileged children in the evening.

In the slum areas of Puri from where most of the trainees used to come, there was a high rate of school dropouts. Unable to continue his schooling beyond sixth standard because of the family’s financial constraints, Sahoo knew the importance of education and its role in ending extreme poverty. So, he encouraged slum children to continue with their education and he took the boxing route. He made a rule in his boxing club –‘No school, no boxing’.

Apart from free coaching, he provides free equipment to the underprivileged children and also helps them in getting free books.   

Till date, because of Sahoo’s initiative – no school, no boxing – over 60 school dropouts in the Sahi slum area of Puri were back to the schools and many of them are college graduates now. Due to his boxing initiative linked with academics, the school dropout rate in the area is continuously decreasing.

Over the years he had trained over 500 children, largely coming from the slum areas, and many of them have made it to the state and national-level. Over 10 of his students had got jobs in various government departments under the sports quota.

In the past, boxing was taught at Jaga Ghara , later it was taught at various government schools (Puri Zila School, Police High School, Bholanath High School.) Now he is running a centre at Puri Stadium.

Every year, over 15 athletes from his academy compete at the national level tournaments in various age groups. Because of his boxing initiatives, he has been nominated as a Vice-President of the Orissa Boxing Association.