IMPHAL, February 28: The Bangalore-based TARGET Games & Facilities Pvt. Ltd. is tying up with Huyen Lallong Manipur Thang-Ta Cultural Association to train girls with `Sarit Saraat`, an unarmed component of Manipuri martial art Thang-Ta. An MoU was signed today between Founder Guru of Huyen Lallong Padma Shri Guru G. Gourkishore Sharma and CEO of TARGET Aloke Biswas at the office of the Association at Irilbung, Imphal.
Speaking to mediapersons, Aloke Biswas said, “For the last few years there has been an increase in the violence and atrocities against girls and women in different parts of India. In the wake of such an alarming situation, the company felt that girls needed to be trained with self defence programs so that they could defend themselves from any untoward incidence against them”. He further said, “I came to know about Thang-Ta when I came down to Imphal to meet Mary Kom in August last year. I felt that `Sarit Saraat` which is one of the indigenous martial art forms of Manipur would be the best suitable option for self defence for the girls”.
The project to be named ‘Swarakshit Nari’ is likely to be launched in the first week of April this year at Bangalore. In the first phase, the project will train girls at Govt. Schools, Govt. Aided Schools and Corporate Schools in and around Bangalore City. The project aims to spread throughout the country in a phase-wise manner.
As agreed upon in the MoU, 3 girl Instructors from Huyen Lallong will train girl students at Bangalore. The remunerations of the Instructors and other expenditures for the project will be borne by the Company.
While interacting with the media, Guru Gourkishore said that the Association will preserve the cultural ethos of Thang-Ta while training the girls. The training program will include only Sarit Saraat, the unarmed form of the Thang-Ta. Regarding preservation of originality of Thang-Ta, he said, the Association will propose to the right forum for its registration or patent right so that others could not claim it later on.
It is worthwhile to mention that TARGET had earlier gifted a 3BHK flat at Bangalore to Mary Kom on October 10, 2012.