Grappling with predators

NEW DELHI: Last week, top women wrestlers from the country had come forth with allegations against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexually harassing young athletes at the women’s national camp.

Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia, along with wrestlers Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Ravi Dahiya had staged a 3-day long sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, calling for the WFI chief’s ouster.

After Sports Minister Anurag Thakur engaged with the protestors, the wrestling body official was temporarily benched and the grapplers called off their agitation. An oversight committee was also formed to investigate the allegations.

The episode is a reminder of how India’s female athletes are subject to the unsolicited advances of federation chiefs, coaches and support staffers. Such instances of harassment have been reported not just in government-run academies, but even privately funded institutions too.

A few numbers can put this problem in context. For starters, of the 45-odd sexual harassment cases reported at 24 centres administered by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) between 2010 and 2019, as many as 29 cases were lodged against coaches.

Many such cases have not been brought to closure, owing to which those accused of misdemeanours continue serving in their portfolios and coaching young sportspersons.

The absence of stringent penalties for perpetrators ends up emboldening them. Several cases have been reported over the past few years that paint India’s coaching system in a poor light.

Back in 2015, four junior women athletes had signed a suicide pact on account of being harassed by their coach at a government run centre in Alappuzha, Kerala. A 15-year-old rower died in the aftermath of this pact.

In June 2022, a leading woman cyclist alleged that a national coach indulged in inappropriate behaviour during an international competition trip to Slovenia.

SAI subsequently terminated the coach after its internal complaints committee (ICC) found him guilty.

A barrage of cases has compelled SAI to introduce guidelines to sport federations instructing them to ensure the safety of women athletes during national and international camps.

SAI’s directives include women coaches mandatorily accompanying women athletes during domestic/international travel; increasing the number of women coaches/support staff personnel in camps; appointing a compliance officer in all national and international coaching camps/exposure drives.

The compliance officer also is to be tasked with communicating with sportspersons to ensure guidelines are followed as well as enforcing SOPs on preventing harassment of athletes.

Unfortunately, several sports federations, including those associated with sports like mallakhamb, kho-kho and handball do not have a dedicated ICC. So, victims often tend to keep their grievances to themselves, and in many cases, withdraw their complaints, fearing retribution from the officials and endangering their careers.

In an emerging economy like India, sportspersons have to work ten times as hard to break through into the State or national level events, even as they deal with the vicissitudes of day-to-day life.

So, it falls upon the SAI and the 56 National Sport Federations (NSFs) to identify loopholes as well as deficiencies in the functioning of their associations.

Apart from implementing a strict policy of zero tolerance towards harassment of any kind, these bodies also need to enlist the services of sports psychologists and mental health professionals who can coach athletes in a time of need.