Calcutta : In a sport widely considered to be a male bastion, a woman from Kidderpore has blazed a trail for herself by becoming the coach of the Bengal women’s boxing team.

Razia Shabnam, in her mid-20s is only one of three NIS-passed women boxing coaches in India (the other two being Geeta Jam of Manipur and Sanjukta Ghosh of Asansol).

And if coaching the Bengal girls is not enough, she often spars with the boys at her club, the Kidderpore School of Physical Culture, considered by many to be the cradle of boxing in Bengal. “Not only in KSOPC, I have trained boys in many other clubs across the city,” Shabnam told The Telegraph.

“When I was a boxer, I faced a number of problems training under male coaches. There are many problems which a woman cannot relate to a male coach. Then, being a woman, it’s easier to understand the psyche of another woman,” she says.

This experience in the ring made her take up coaching professionally. “I did not want the other girls who love boxing face the same impediments that I had to.”

According to Shabnam, the parents of female boxers feel reassured when they see their wards practice under a woman coach. “After I joined KSOPC as coach, the number of women boxers has gone up strikingly.” She also said that local lad Ali Qamar’s success in the Commonwealth Games has given a boost to women boxers as well. “After he won, more and more parents are coming forward with their daughters.”