UP akhara breaks 450-yr-old custom, allows girls to wrestle
Varanasi's Tulsidas akhara has allowed girls to compete in traditional wrestling, breaking a 450-year-old tradition of not admitting girls. The akhara, which is run by the Sankat Mochan temple trust, will hold fights featuring women from Diwali this year. This comes after two girls, Nandini Sarkar and Aastha Verma, took almost a decade to convince the trust to allow them.  