“When I started wrestling, it was difficult. Our outfits are figure-hugging, and we have to wear shorts. People would object to that,” Kakran told Outlook. “On top of that, we were poor. My mother would stitch wrestling ‘langots’(underwear worn by wrestlers) and my father would sell them. But I always had their support. They also explained things to others and gradually things changed. And then I moved to Delhi, where people’s attitude towards a girl taking up sport was much better. In fact, even in my village, there are now two or three girls who go to Muzaffarnagar for wrestling.” Kakran is also grateful for the government’s cash incentives for athletes, which, she points out, are the same for men and women. In 2020, she was conferred the Arjuna Award, which came with a purse of Rs 15 lakh. For her bronze in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, she received Rs 5 lakh from BJP MP Manoj Tiwari. This is the year of the Asian Games, for which the UP government has promised Rs 3 crore, Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 75 lakh to gold, silver and bronze medallists, respectively.