Supreme Court judge Justice Hima Kohli recently called for policy reforms to promote women’s empowerment through sports and said such policies should establish mechanisms to address gender-based violence, discrimination and harassment in this field.
She was addressing a national seminar on “Women Empowerment through Sports” at the Campus Law Centre at Delhi University. She said: “These policies should examine various facets, including ensuring equal opportunities, providing financial backup and establishing mechanisms for reporting and redressing any gender-based violence, discrimination and harassment in the field of sports.”
This includes gender-based misconduct and time-bound redressal of such complaints. She said: “We must invest in robust infrastructure and experts to foster an ecosystem that nurtures talent. Above all, we must challenge regressive mindsets and cultural norms that limit the aspirations of our women and girls.”
She also emphasised that creating a safe and inclusive environment will send a powerful message to the entire society that women in sports deserve respect, dignity and protection from all forms of discrimination and harassment. “The Indian sporting arena, like any other, is not immune to the deep-rooted biases and gender disparities that persist in our society. There are several obstacles that have been preventing women from fully realising their potential,” she added.
Recently, in a judgment dealing with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, popularly known as the PoSH Act, Justice Kohli, writing for a two-judge bench, had flagged a newspaper report that said that 16 of the 30 national sports federations don’t have an Internal Complaints Committee as stipulated under PoSH. Justice Kohli also batted for promoting equal economic opportunities as well as equal participation of women and bias-free representation in the media.
She emphasised that sports can be a means of economic empowerment for women as it opens avenues for endorsements and professional contracts, and stories of successful women in sports teach other girls the importance of teamwork, self-reliance, resilience and confidence. “We must proactively create an enabling environment that fosters the development of talent and nurtures aspiring women athletes. A level-playing field will empower them to pursue their sporting dreams with vigour and determination,” she said.
Many Indian sportswomen have made an effort to liberate themselves from the constraints of prejudice, social exclusion and cultural bias to build a successful career. Nonetheless, one of the main issues is gender equality, which is currently being addressed by a number of authorities and women as well. The salary gap between women athletes and their male counterparts, which is either half or less, is the biggest obstacle facing them. The same is true for the prize money. Female athletes don’t have a consistent income and job stability is grim. Many have to take up other work to supplement their income. Even in the area of commercial endorsements and sponsorships, women receive far less support than their male counterparts. In 2007, for the first time, the Wimbledon tennis tournament offered equal prize money for the men’s and women’s singles winner.
Discrimination against women and girls in sport and physical education are widespread in several countries. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, they are barred from participating in sport and physical education. It is one of three countries that has never sent a female athlete to the Olympics.
In other countries, the number of women engaging in sport is falling. In the UK, the gap between the amount of exercise girls and boys do widens at school as many of the former opt out of physical education due to lack of confidence in their sporting skills or, as some girls indicated in a research conducted by Loughborough University, due to a lack of female sporting role models.
In addition, there is the darker side. The relationship between a sports aspirant and her coach is similar to a guru and shishya, but recently there have been many cases of predatory behaviour, misogyny and sexual harassment, defiling the relationship. Studies indicate that 40% to 50% of athletes have experienced anything from mild harassment to severe abuse.
In Delhi, in January 2023, 30 Indian wrestlers, including Olympic medallists, staged a sit-in, accusing the president of the Wrestling Federation of India and its coaches of sexual harassment. They called it off on government assurances of a fair investigation. In April 2023, they resumed the protest at Jantar Mantar as the Internal Committee which was made to address the complaints had not made the report public. They also demanded the arrest of president of WFI. The wrestlers claimed that the harassment had been ongoing since 2012, during tournaments and even outside India.
In another case in Chennai, a 19-year-old national-level runner filed a sexual harassment complaint against a well-known athletics coach. She said that the coach would improperly touch female athletes under the guise of assisting them with physiotherapy and stretching. Seven more sportswomen, including several who represented India, filed similar complaints two months after the first. The coach was detained and charged under the IPC and the POCSO Act.
In another case, a female gymnast had complained that her coach, videotaped her without her permission during the March 2022 trials. The Gymnastics Federation of India, however, did not reprimand the coach, prompting the Sports Authority of India to appoint a three-member panel and initiate an investigation. Regardless, the coach was named for India’s Commonwealth Games, but was replaced at the last minute.
In other parts of the world, the situation is not much better. In the US, three women filed a class-action lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), its board of governors and a coach, alleging dozens of incidences of sexual harassment and abuse by their coach. They claimed that the NCAA failed to safeguard them despite knowing about the coach’s alleged assault.
In another case in the US, a former gymnast filed a sexual harassment complaint against a national gymnastics team doctor in 2016. Following her claim, more than 265 women came forward to accuse him of sexual abuse. In Afghanistan, members of the national football women’s squad were sexually and physically harassed by males from the football association, including its president. The president was banned from football for life in 2019 after a FIFA inquiry.
Research by the BBC shows the figure of inequality in sports was dramatic when broken down by gender—42% of total men surveyed said they played sport compared to 29% of women. In cricket, only 15% of Indian women play it, as compared to 25% of men.
However, the disparity is slowly turning a wheel when it comes to certain sports. In a BBC survey conducted in 2020, a third of respondents identified one or more sports as being unsuitable for women. These included wrestling, boxing and weightlifting, exactly the disciplines where many Indian sportswomen are shining. Had it not been for India’s female athletes at Rio in 2016, the nation would have returned empty handed from the Olympics for the first time since 1992. In kabaddi, 15% of men and 11% of women form part of the sport.
With sports becoming a strong contender as a career option for men as well as women, it needs regulation and the support of a strong government and legal policies. And a safe environment for women.
—By Abhilash Kumar Singh and India Legal Bureau