Vishal Uppal present the story of women who broke the
shackles of conservatism and emerged as winners.
The role of women in societies marred with conservatism was limited to domestic chores. Women remained in shackles of home, caring for family throughout their life. Even the educated and employed women led a role of supporting the family and caring for their needs. The society in India believed in defined roles for men and women from centuries. There were only countable women who broke out of role stereotype and ventured into unknown fields. However, these women were from affluent background and got patronage from their parents or their community. Some communities in India were liberal in their outlook and supported their women in their endeavors. In pre independence era, there were women who ventured into difficult realms like flying. Few Anglo-Indian women participated in Wimbledon and even won matches. However, there were few women in sports. The pre independence era only witnessed nomad women who worked as gymnasts or trapeze artists in circus companies but there were hardly any women in competitive sports. Even after four decades of independence, there were hardly any women in sports. P T Usha sowed the seeds and became one of the greatest athletes in India. She won 13 gold medals in Asian games and Asian meets. She dominated the athletics scene in 1980s. An ordinary girl became inspiration for many female athletes. Anju Bobby George, another athlete, represented India internationally in athletics meets in 1990s and early 2000. Now India is proud to have Hima Das. Hima is bagging gold at several International meets in the categories she participates.
The real acclaim came when Indian women started bagging
individual medals in Commonwealth games, Olympics and other World
Championships. Indian women surpassed men and won medals that became dry after
the end of golden spell of Indian Hockey Team in Olympics. In 2000, Karnam Malleswari bagged India's first
individual medal in Olympics. She bagged bronze in weightlifting.This was just
a beginning. India won Olympic bronze through efforts of M C Mary Kom in boxing
and Sakshi Malik in wrestling. P V Sidhu won Silver in badminton in 2016
Olympics and later became world number one in badminton. There are notable female
players who remained top ranked in the world. Saina Nehwal reached World Number
1 rank in Badminton in 2015 and Deepika Kumari in Archery in 2012. Sania Mirza
was rated India’s top ranked tennis player by WTA in singles and doubles tennis
for almost a decade. Dipa Kamrakar is another world record holder in
gymnastics. She successfully landed the Produnova, which is regarded as the
most difficult vault performed in women's gymnastics. The lesser-known squash
player, Dipika Pallikal became the first Indian Squash player to break into top
10 in the PSA Women's ranking. She is spouse of
Dinesh Karthik, who is a well known cricketer.
Those who have seen the movie Dangal can visualise the glory
of Geeta Phogat. She became the first woman to win gold in wrestling for India.
The breakthrough came in 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. Geeta Phogat became
synonymous with girls who are coming out from most feudal and patriarchal
regions of the country. Her father, Mahavir Phogat is a true hero as he coached
and mentored his three daughters in wrestling. His vision to see his daughters
out of traditional role is remarkable.
In a Cricket loving country, it is worth to mention the
names of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur. Both of these cricketers are winning
accolades and wins in international women's cricket matches.
In a society, where government is still trying to teach through slogans of "Beti Bachao Beti Padao" meaning "Save Daughters Teach Daughters", the women sports fraternity is setting a living example for parents to nurture their daughters and let them pursue the stars.
Image Source: Kate [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sania_Mirza_-_Roland_Garros_2011.jpg
