Breaking Boundaries – Northeast India Holds First Female Bodybuilding Contest In Guwahati

Five female bodybuilders took part in the first national Miss Saraighat Body Building Championship which also had one participant each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

Updated on: 5 April 2022 5:12 am

Female body builders prepare backstage before Miss Saraighat Body Building Championship.

India’s northeastern Assam state has organized its first top contest for female bodybuilders. (More Sports News)

On Saturday, five women participated in the first national Miss Saraighat Body Building Championship, a one-day event in Assam’s capital Guwahati, including one each from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Female bodybuilders participate in the first national Miss Saraighat Body Building Championship in Guwahati. AP

Bhaba Goswami, one of the organisers, said they have been holding men’s version of the event for over three decades and called the female contest a major breakthrough in the state’s sports history.

One of India’s top female bodybuilders, 26-year-old Sanjana, won the competition organised by the Assam unit of the Indian Body Builders Federation. “I feel delighted to be the first winner of this event,” she said.

Winners pose during the first national Miss Saraighat Body Building Championship. AP

Sanjana comes from a small town in India’s most populous Uttar Pradesh state. She works as an official in India’s customs department. In 2018, she became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in an Asian bodybuilding championship.

Female bodybuilders do last-minute preparations before Miss Saraighat Body Building Championship. AP

“It has been a tough struggle right from the beginning mainly because of lack of resources and societal taboos,” said Sanjana, who is known as the ‘golden girl’ among fellow bodybuilders. “But my sheer hard work has paid all through.”