Rio effect raises hope in city sportswomen

KOLKATA: Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar have not only brought Olympic glory to India, but have provided a fillip to the much neglected category of women in sports, feel budding sportswomen and coaches in the city."The feat of the three women who hail from different regions of the country will go a long way in improving the shabby treatment meted out to female athletes," feels Deborima Chatterjee, an under-16 badminton champion in the state. Despite the fact that it is 2016 and we are supposedly freer and more equal than even before, women's sporting events are often kept out of the spotlight. In fact, it is often marginalised and subject to derision and ridicule. Often, women are judged as lesser than their male counterparts and are insulted."We have something to show now," said Priyanka Roy, a state-level kickboxer from New Alipore. "Women are serious about sports and we have shown this." One only needs to look at the condition of women's wrestling in Kolkata. Runu Ghoroy and 19 other girls wrestle in a dilapidated building under Panchannan Byayam Samity in Jorabagan.Members of extended family and friends smirked at Runu when she informed her parents that she would take up wrestling."Everybody laughed at me and nobody took me seriously when I said I was taking up wrestling. That was when I realized how lightly women in sports are taken. The change has to first come in the mindset of the people," Ghoroy said. The women athletes are making history and saving India's face at Rio, those coaching in sports other than cricket, football and lawn tennis feel that the achievements will go a long way in providing a fillip to women in sports."Inspired by Dipa, Sakshi and Sindhu, young girls will now feel confident in fulfilling their ambitions and will be less afraid or cowed by society," said Pradipta Banerjee, senior coach of the West Bengal Boxing Association. Pursuing disciplines like boxing, wrestling and martial arts will also make girls self-sufficient in defending themselves. "If more girls pursue these disciplines, they will not have to depend on anybody else to protect them," said Asit Kumar Saha, a former wrestler who now coaches youngsters.It will be unfair to say that India has never had any woman sportsperson firing the imagination of its girls. Tennis ace Sania Mirza and shuttler Saina Nehwal did make sports cool for women. Track-and-field athlete P T Usha had won four gold medals in the 1987 Asian Games. Women won two of the six medals India picked up in London 2012.Sports personalities feel that the momentum that the feats of Dipa, Sakshi and Sindhu have provided will force sports administrators in the country to take note. "For our sports administrators, it will be difficult to ignore this category anymore. The achievements of the three girls will create pressure on our administrators to set things right. The infrastructure needs an overhaulHopefully, the medals from Rio will help trigger changes," said Montu Das, president of West Bengal Kickboxing Association. Sindhu's silver even had a cab aggregator taking note of her achievement. Commuters using the Uber app found shuttlecocks plying on roads as the cab aggregator replaced its icons. But the corporate involvement will have to go beyond tokenism, feel sports personalities."Funding sports should be a corporate social responsibility," . Sports like badminton, gymnastics and contact sports should get more attention," said Barnali Ghosh Roy, deputy secretary, Howrah Gymnastic Association.Many in the sports fraternity, however, feel that the euphoria around sports other than cricket will soon die down.