An insightful panel discussion talked about the progress, challenges and ways to boost women athletes. Kritika Dua listens in
Traditional views of gender roles and stigma which question women’s abilities as athletes seem to influence the rate of participation of women in sport. Although women’s sports have not always been considered popular or mainstream in India, things are gradually changing with their glorious victories in the international arena. There is a silver lining for sportswomen as three women athletes won medals at Rio Olympics and the Indian women’s cricket team is creating a niche for themselves. More and more female athletes have displayed game-changing performances in recent years, winning fans and inspiring girls to excel. They have broken social stereotypes to prove their mettle time and again.
Such was the case with Deepa Malik, who was paralysed chest downwards at the age of 30. Yet she broke the shackles of being called wheelchair-bound with a fiery tenacity of purpose and won a silver medal in short put at the Paralympics. “I refuse to be anybody’s stereotype,” said she after her win.
At a seminar on women in sports, panellists sorted out through a mesh of issues. Sport secteraty Injeti Srinivas believes that sports is gender-neutral and universal. Said he, “We anyway lack a sports culture in the country. Within that limitation, the access to sports for girls and women is far lesser than what it is for boys and men. The real issue is mass participation of women in sports.”
India lacks a sports culture whereas Australia has a strong one. But even that has a few troughs. Talking about it, Australia’s Acting High Commissioner Chris Elstoft said, “People in Australia still think that men’s disciplines are better than women’s. This perception is wrong as a sport is not about the competition between sexes but about the excitement of the game. We have seen progress in our women soccer team.” He also said that women’s sport is underreported and women’s participation is lower. But federations could do a lot to change it.
Australian broadcaster Tracey Holmes did a research on the depiction of male and female athletes in Australian newspapers. The results were an eye opener as there were 93 per cent articles on male athletes in comparison to a mere three per cent on female athletes. The photographs of male athletes were always very active, strong, showing speed and agility whereas women athletes were shown as passive, model-like, quite opposite to their male counterparts. However, things started changing after she highlighted the bias. Holmes said, “The representation started changing both in articles and photographs.”
The government has a vital role to play to encourage more women to consider sports as a career. Said Srinivas, “One of the first priorities of the government is to make sports a compulsory subject in school, to have marks for it. Sports should be seen as a learning tool and not merely as a recreational tool. There are still some issues in our way to include more women in sports such as the need for changing rooms and ensuring more women coaches. But we are working on it.”
Malik shared that the problem she faced initially was not having wheelchair-friendly bathrooms which made things difficult for her. She said, “Things were not the same decades back when I started. But, in the last five years, I have seen improvement. Particularly, with the Prime Minister and the government’s focus and emphasis on boosting sports in India.”
Srinivas said that the government is working towards safety guidelines for children in sports. “All schools should follow the same norms. There should be more women coaches and a higher representation of women in top positions at the National Sports Federation to fill the gaps.” He said, “There should be a conducive environment for girls in sports.” Elstoft agreed on the need for child protection arrangement in sports. He said, “Things need to be managed well at the grassroot level.”
Srinivas said that we should break the stereotypes by making women participate in sports which are not typically considered to be for them, such as wrestling and weightlifting. He talked about incentives to attract more women to sports. “India is one of the few countries which has job reservation for sports and more job reservation for women sports. It can be the surest way of attracting more women.” He said there was no discrimination between men and women when it came to ensuring international exposure.
Malik felt that media has a crucial role to play in helping more children become future athletes and battling perception.