If I had asked a question to layman Indian about the number of Indian athletes they know 10 years ago, the first 10-20 names of the athletes would come from the men’s cricket sector, then supposedly the likes of ‘Milkha Singh,’ ‘Abhinav Bindra,’ ‘Sania Mirza,’ (for mostly the wrong reasons) and ‘Major Dhyanchand,’ (very very unlikely but we hope) would be the first few names one could recall from the other sector of the sports sector in India. The fact that these names would have had fewer women athletes, was more concerning.
Cricket is celebrated in India, it’s like a religion that glues every Indian together, but that doesn’t mean the same amount of attention was (still is) given to the women’s sector. Despite being in the finals of 3 tournaments in 5 years (which is basically having more finals appearances than their male counterparts) the Indian women’s cricket is mostly trolled for always being the second best to Australia despite being the only team that has given southern stars a run for their money in every tournament. Let’s not talk about the huge disparity between the infrastructure and facilities an Australian women cricketer gets with all the WBBL experience additionally. Because if we get into that, I’d be called an anti-national for expecting the richest board in the world (BCCI) will at least invest more in the women’s game.
Over the last decade, we’ve had a big number of women athletes representing our flag and winning laurels for team India. The one significant name is PV Sindhu. Olympic silver and bronze with a set of all medals at the world's and commonwealth games, Sindhu was often termed as a “Silver girl of India.” In one of her interviews, she recalls an incident, where people wrote articles about how she’s *only* good for silver and she’d never been able to get into the podium and finish first because she’s mentally weak, after she won silvers in 4 tournaments consecutively, tells us a lot about the Indian mindset. but we don’t understand how much it can break an athlete. When in Rio Olympics, Mirabai Chanu failed to lift any weight in the clean and jerk category, and people called her out saying she’s finished at 22, she conquered the world at Tokyo where she won a historic silver for India. The exciting talent coming from the boxing, table tennis, judo, fencing, squash, and wrestling sector where the youngsters in the likes of Neetu Ghanghas, Nikhat Zareen, lovlina borgohain, Manika Batra, Sreeja Akula, Sarita Devi, Tulika Maan, bhavani devi, (the first fencer from India to play in the Olympics) Anahat Singh(India's youngest debutant at the commonwealth games where she took a game off world number 19) Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik have shown their scintillating talent at the worlds, saying that they aren’t shy away from being too confident, and aggressive from the start, even if the opponent is world-class tells us a lot about the new crop of Indian women’s athlete and the sector as a whole. With all these youngsters, the legends like Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal, Sakshi Malik, and Mary Kom are still there, being the best in the world, and that’s very happening to see. The hockey team that stunned Australia in the Olympics and the football team have also paved their way upward and it’s just a matter of time before we can see them winning a big tournament in coming years.
When the Indian women’s team created history after winning India’s first medal and that too gold in the lawn bowls category at the commonwealth games, the whole of India cheered for them surely, but when they were leaving for Birmingham, many people trolled them for getting selected just because they had *looks*, recalls the Indian team captain Rupa-rani after the historic gold, which makes me quite mad honestly, because the way the objectification happens for women athletes from time immemorial, whether it’s Sania Mirza for wearing supposedly *short* skirts or the incident where the world’s highest run-getter in women’s cricket Mithali Raj was slut shamed for wearing a simple dress or people calling dutee chand out for coming out as a lesbian, there have been many examples. It’s shameful to say that sexism is a part and parcel of women’s sports, but it is the reality that needs to change big time. I’ve often seen people downgrading the achievements of women’s cricketers by simply stating, “they don’t bowl faster like men” or “debates on smaller boundaries,” need to understand the physical difference between men and women, but I’d still say the talent and skills can be compared between the two.
Since we are talking about the revolution in women’s sports, it’s very unlikely not to discuss them playing while menstruating. To play a test cricket match for 4 days tennis match for 3 hours, or an extremely physical bout of either boxing/wrestling, it takes courage to play despite the pain and win laurels for the country. It takes courage to don the whites during periods (test cricket/fencing) or swim even though how uncomfortable it gets; we need to applaud all these incredibly powerful women who day in and day out put an insane amount of effort despite all the odds just to see their country’s flag flying higher.
Despite all these incredible performances, the investment, and the infrastructure is very less, and the pay gap is huge. The highest grade for Indian women has a retainer of Rs 50 lakh while the lowest grade for men is worth Rs 1 crore which is outrageous, to say the least. In tennis even the Grand Slams give more or less the same amount to all, in other tournaments, the discrimination could be seen to the naked eye. I guess, to bring change in this, the masculine hegemony in the women’s sphere should be dodged, and more women athletes getting the position of power might help. Equal opportunities and an equal set of facilities are needed because, it’s shame that in big 2022 we have to fight for basic rights, considering both genders have families to raise but the men will be awarded more money for doing the same job. I hope, there’s a parallel world, where there’s no place for sexism, or discrimination in the spectrum, and all equally respect the women athletes as they respect the men athletes. Is it too much to ask for?
Vaadsabha Member
Siddhi Sandip Deshpande
TYBA
