RAJASTHAN : Married off when she was 8 years old, Priya Singh walked out of the child marriage and entered the bodybuilding ring. Today, she is the first female bodybuilder in Rajasthan. She is thrice titleholder of Miss Rajasthan and has twice won international awards. Now, she wants to win a medal for the country in the world bodybuilding competition organised by International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB).
Priya was interested in sports since childhood. She wanted to make a mark in sports, but due to the financial condition of her house, it was not easy. Born in a poor family in Bikaner, she has five other siblings. Her father Mohanlal worked as a driver in the Forest Department. Those days no one allowed one’s daughters to study, therefore, Priya formally studied only up to the fifth grade.
Regardless of her forced marriage, she continued her studies from Kota Open School and completed her graduation. To support her family, Priya took up a job in a gym in Jaipur in 2015. The male trainers working there started protesting because she was the only woman working there. Priya broke her hand due to excessive weight but still did not give up and did not leave the gym job. Eventually, she became a personal trainer with her hard work.
When she heard about a bodybuilding competition due in Delhi through her acquaintance Shravan Kumar Soni, she decided to visit the national capital. After she saw the contest, she decided to become a bodybuilder. “I saw a female bodybuilder for the first time, when she stood in a two-piece suit. No spectator passed any adverse remarks. Then I came to know that no woman from Rajasthan has taken part in bodybuilding. I decided to represent the state,” Priya said.
Her decision wasn’t short of a sacrilege in her village. Her brother warned that he would “kill her” and her parents told her she was “dead to them”. She left her house. With great difficulty, Priya’s trainers agreed to train her. They were sure that Priya would leave the training. She was given a diet and workout schedule for three months. When her trainer felt that Priya was really serious and performing well, she started working hard on her training.
Bodybuilding is a very expensive sport – its preparation cost can go up to `50,000 per month. Her trainer helped Priya financially and thus began a hard drill that lasted at least five hours. “I made a place in the top 20 out of 100 in the All India Ms India contest in Chennai. Rajasthan is not backward in women’s bodybuilding now, I am IBBF-accredited from the state and I’m the only athlete in the sport,” she says.
Priya has won the Ms Rajasthan Bodybuilder title three times consecutively in year beginning 2018. Apart from this, Priya has also represented Rajasthan in an event in which 150 countries participated in Gujarat. During the Corona period in 2021online and 2022 in Mumbai, Priya won the World Women Leadership Award. She was also awarded the World Women Leadership Award at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai in March this year for trying to change the thinking of society by coming out of difficult situations.
Priya says her destination is far and her dream is to first get an all-India award and then enter the international competition. “I want to represent India in an international bodybuilding competition. I am preparing for it and will not leave bodybuilding before that.” “My father now gets calls from various kinds of people, asking when his daughter will come to their city. When I reentered my house after five years, I was very happy. At last, my family recognised my hard work and talent,” says Priya.