India, Nov. 22 -- At the Poona Golf Course, a quiet change has been unfurling over the past two decades. Dozens of young men from the Shikalgar community-long burdened by the stigma linked to past criminal associations-now work as caddies at one of the city's oldest sports institutions, thanks to Ikram Khan, advisor to the Poona Golf Course. The transition has offered them not only employment but also dignity, structure, and a path to reintegration with the society.

Once pushed to the margins and denied opportunities, many Shikalgar families have witnessed a reversal of fortune/s after the golf course began inducting their youth as caddies. The move has opened a rare window into a diametrically different world where discipline, etiquette...