Suicide Bid by Women Athletes Tip of 'Abuse by Coaches' Iceberg

NEW DELHI: Abuse and assault by coaches in the Sports Authority of India led four young women athletes to consume a poisonous plant in a bid to commit suicide. One 15 year old died, the other three are battling for their lives. No one has been arrested, and the authorities have only mouthed platitudes of an “enquiry and strict action” leaving the grieving families highly dissatisfied.

The young girls were being trained at the Water Sports Centre of SAI at Alapuzha in Kerala. They consumed the poisonous plant at the SAI womens hostel and by the time they were taken to hospital, the 15 year old athlete Aparna was dead. Initial reports suggest harassment and abuse by the coaches with the young girl who died being beaten severely, to a point where she could neither sit nor stand. Aparna’s relative told the media that the girls were being physically tortured.

Sexual harassment and abuse of sports girls by coaches is rampant, but except for a few incidents every now and again the issue remains under covers. Even in this case there has been no action with Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal still awaiting a “factual report” and the families just action. The sports authorities have already denied any harassment of the girls, maintaining that no one tortured them in any way.

This is not the first incident of abuse but despite fairly regular complaints, many of which are reportedly muzzled at the onset, the Sport authorities have done little to ensure the safety and protection of sportswomen. Questions have been raised in Parliament as well in the past but the government’s response in the past has been assurances of concrete measures to protect the women, that experts confided have never been implemented on the ground.

A well known case involved Th.Ranjitha, a hockey player in the Indian women’s team, who wrote a four page letter complaining bitterly against the chief coach M.K.Kaushik. Incidentally he had helped in the making of the movie Chak de India. Ranjitha said at the time that the coach had made sexual and offensive remarks. She was not isolated and was able to move the case forward as all the 31 girls in the hockey team supporter her claims against Kaushik. The support from the team allowed her to speak out and get some basic action initiated against Kaushik.

In yet another incident Sydney Olympic bronze medallist, weightlifter Karnam Malleswari accused the Sports Authority of India coach at the time Ramesh Malhotra of sexually harassing junior lifters. Here too Malleswari was able to stand up for the younger sports girls because she was the first Indian to win a medal at the Olympics, and had won at least 11 gold medals in national events, and could not be ignored or dismissed by the sports authorities easily.

Sports experts and journalists point towards sexual harassment, and physical abuse as being a reality, affecting young women undergoing training in a variety of sports. Sources said that most of the cases go unreported as the girls too scared to file a complaint against the offending coach.

The Sports Authority of India is the worst offender, as there seem to be no guidelines and measures in place to ensure the security of the sportswomen who are left at the mercy of the male coaches. Sources said that the ‘casting couch’ played a big role here, with the girls coming largely from the rural districts finding it impossible to speak out without fear of reprisal from those who to their young minds, represent authority. All sports are affected including womens cricket, volleyball, swimming, basketball, hockey, weightlifting with the abuse by coaches being an open although unspoken secret.

Sportspersons spoken to, over the years, by reporters speak of abuse by coaches being rampant. Althlete Milkha Singh’s wife Nirmal Milka Singh, a sports woman in her own right, was quoted a while ago by the media as saying, “sexual harassment in sports is as much of a reality as the intake of performance enhancing drugs! Milkha Singh wants offending coaches to be blacklisted. But as the sources pointed out, the blacklisting can take place only when the coaches are identified, and in most cases enquiries are not held, and if held remain inconclusive.

The All India Womens Association was the only women’s organisation to take up the issue, and that too because volleyball player Jagmati Sangwan is a senior member. She went on record to say that the coaches “were lecherous and their gestures were obscene. But the women players suffered it all in silence in the larger interests of the game.” Several measures have been suggested, such as the employment and training of women coaches; strict monitoring of the coaches; sexual harassment committees that sportswomen can approach in every field but there has been no response from the Sports Authority of India.