Indian Women in Sports:

 ️                                                                                                         -Nitesh Kumar 

Introduction:                                                                                                                                                                        Sports has the power to change lives. It teaches us teamwork, resilience, self reliance, confidence and along with all these it also instils in us an extraordinary level of patience.Women in Sports defy gender stereotypes and represent themselves as inspiring role models and show men and women as equals. Women’s involvement in sports dates back to the ancient times. There existed a tradition of women athletes in Greek, Egyptian ,Etruscan and Minoan civilization.

Milestones;
These Indian women athletes have had to overcome much adversity – including a lack of infrastructure and gender discrimination – to come out on top. Let’s take a look at some women who made India proud.

Hima Das:                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Referred to as ‘Dhing Express’, Hima holds the national record in four hundred metres, duration 50.79 seconds. She had the whole nation applauding her historic win at the world Junior Athletics Championship, where she bagged the gold. Today, Hima is her state’s brand ambassador for sports. She’s additionally India’s initial youth UNICEF ambassador and was conferred with the distinguished Arjuna Award.

PV Sindhu:
India’s initial Olympic silver medallist, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, created her mark as an ace shuttler and did the country proud at multiple tournaments and international avenues, like the 2014 macau Open grand prix and also the 2016 Rio athletics. Despite losing out on opportunities to bag a award, her coach P Gopichand attributes her success to her ‘never-say-die’ attitude.

 Mirabai Chanu:                                                                                                                                                                                                      Mirabai Chanu ,the twenty six year old hailing form Manipuri ended India’s 21-year look ahead to a muscle building award at the athletics by clinching a ribbon within the 49kg class to open the country’s account. The 26-year-old raised a complete of 202kg (87kg+115kg) to better Karnam Malleswari’s bronze in the 2000 sydney athletics.

Lovlina Borgohain:                                                                                                                                                                                                          On August 4, Lovlina Borgohain became the third Indian boxer after Vijender Singh (2008) and mc mary Kom (2012) to win a award at the olympics.
The 23-year-old from assam signed off with a prize after a 0-5 loss to powerful world champion Busenaz Surmeneli. Lovlina stood up to the sturdy challenge of her opponent however came undone after Surmeneli got right down to connecting her vicious hooks and body shots.

Issues:                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Although women are gradually making their mark in Sports ,they still have to face a lot of issues ,especially of gender inequality. It is sad that even in the 21st century women are treated differently from men. They are still seen as house makers and child rearing machines.
Although women have started working and earning their own livelihood in the major developed cities, participation in sports is still a far fetched concept for many. They have to face various social ,psychological, financial and family issues. Also there have always been cases of sexual harassment by coaches. The various controversies that come up every now and then about sports costumes and the personal lives of sports women take a blow at their zeal and enthusiasm and make it really difficult for them to carry on with sports.
In 2009 India’s former sprint queen ,P.T. Usha broke down in front of media regarding the discrimination meted out to her.
Some major issues faced by women are as follows:
⦁ Lack of Access : Lack of physical education in schools and limited opportunities to play sports in both high school and college mean girls have to look elsewhere for sports –which may not exist or may cost more money.
⦁ Safety and Transportation: Most of the sports we play , requires a venue and it is not always possible to have that venue close to the place we live and that means we have to look for transportation facilities. With this come various issues of extended costs and security concerns which further challenge women.

⦁ Lack of Positive Role Models :Women role models have always been mostly about external beauty and everything flashy. So when a girl child grows up she’s always faced with the harsh decision of choosing between a flashy life which seems all so beautiful and a harsh sports life which requires constant effort and doesn’t come with many guarantees. So most women go for the easy choice for lack of support .

⦁ Cost: Sports budget are being slashed everyday around the country. Besides most of the government schools in India provide no sports facilities at all. You have to be exceptionally good to get a part of whatever meagre amount reaches the coaches and administration. So most of the talented guys and girls have to let go of their dreams and with it their talent which requires real hard work and practice to be sharp.

⦁ Social Awkwardness: This is one of the biggest problems faced by Indian women. Seeing women play sports is still awkward for the general society. Women experience bullying, social isolation, negative performance evaluations for their loss . Parents are not yet comfortable to let their girl child out alone to play and compete out of their homes.

⦁ Lack of Sports Coverage: There is a huge difference in the amount of coverage received by sports played by men and that by women. The level of crowd we see in women’s sports has no comparison to what we see during men’s sports. Although they work as hard as men do ,they lack that fan base. It is really important to generate more fans for women too.

Way Forward:

Although the road to equal opportunities for men and women is really a long one ,we still have to start minimising the differences and start working on finding solutions.
The government needs to focus on setting up infrastructure at the district level and make sure that both men and women find better facilities to train and sharpen their skills. By allocating proper resources ,the government can cut the costs incurred by young men and women. Car pooling services must be started at every sports complex to cut the cost on Transportation.
Good coaches must be brought who can train participants with all their skill. The government needs to make sure that the coaches get enough allowances so that they can focus completely on their work .
Strict action should be taken against sexual offenders and by doing so checking the insecurities faced by parents. More push is to be given to women’s sports .More people should come up and support women in the field as they support men. Their hard work must he appreciated .More role models should be appreciated for their hard work and their success stories need to be told loud and clear so that every girl child that dares to dream, can see how dreams come true. In the coming years we will definitely see a change in society and their will be equality in all aspects of life for all men and women.