We can deny it all we want, but it’s the truth that we live in a man’s world. So of course, it takes a lot more effort for women to get the same respect, pay, opportunities and even treatment, for that matter, as men do. In a saddening news, India’s most celebrated wrestlers, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik shared their account of this inferior treatment and the exploitation that comes with it.
Addressing the media on behalf of the allegedly exploited women wrestlers, the wrestlers staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Vinesh Phogat shared how women wrestlers have allegedly been sexually harassed at national camps by coaches and also the WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. She added that WFI mentally tortured her after the Tokyo Olympics defeat. To know and deal with all this torture is deeply disturbing for women, and specifically women in sports.
“He mentally tortures me for everything. To get anything (permissions), we have to beg. Some of the coaches appointed at national camps have been sexually harassing women wrestlers for years. The WFI president is also involved in sexual harassment.”
Vinesh Phogat
Sakshi Malik added that they’re fighting for all these women who have been exploited, and they will name names to whoever is doing the probe. The fact of the matter is that these camps and the coaches are supposed to be safe spaces for the players – and so, such a treatment is almost painful. In view of such accounts, all one can think of is – the country’s women and sportspersons deserve better.
The Delhi Commission for Women’s chairperson, Swati Maliwal, issued a notice against Singh, asking the Deputy Commissioner of Police and Sports Secretary to investigate. However, Singh has rejected all allegations.