INTRODUCTION
According to a BBC research[1] conducted in 2020, 42 percent of around 10,000 people thought women’s sports were less “entertaining” than men’s. There were also negative perceptions about sportswomen based on their looks and capacity to carry children. 50% of the individuals were unable to name an Indian sportswoman when asked.
To understand how this gender disparity and male privilege may be addressed, it is necessary to first discuss the major issues that women players face. The aim of this article is to understand in what spheres of the sports industry such problems lie, and then attempt to deliberate possible solutions to have gender equity in Indian sports.
ARE WOMEN TREATED AT PAR WITH MEN IN THE INDIAN SPORTS INDUSTRY?
GENDER PAY GAP
As per the Gender Inequality Issue of the Global Sports Salaries Survey, 2017, the gender wage disparity in sport is greater than in politics, business, medicine, or even academia. The BCCI’s 2018 retainer contracts for senior men and women cricketers demonstrated the same, with the ‘A’ grade women cricketers receiving Rs. 50 lakhs, which is half the pay of the ‘C’ grade (lowest-earning) men cricketers, who receive Rs. 1 crore. Unfortunately, this disparity exists even now.[2]
The BCCI announced an increased match fee for male and female domestic players in September 2021, with senior women cricketers reportedly being paid around Rs 20,000 per day, which is similar to an Under-19 male counterpart’s income.[3] Furthermore, the men’s cricket captain Virat Kohli is sitting in the top category ‘A+’, earning Rs 7 crore, while his female counterparts Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur, the women’s T20 captain, earn Rs 50 Lakhs (category ‘A’).
Indian cricket players salary (2021-22)
| Category | India men’s cricket team | India women’s cricket team |
| Category A+ | Rs 7 crore | N/A |
| Category A | Rs 5 crore | Rs 50 Lakhs |
| Category B | Rs 3 crore | Rs 30 Lakhs |
| Category C | Rs 1 crore | Rs 10 Lakhs |
Source: Sportyreport
Even in Hockey, the pay disparity between the two teams is tenfold. The Haryana government in 2021 has announced that each male hockey player in the state would receive Rs 2.5 crore, while each female hockey player would receive Rs 50 lakh. The Punjab government made an announcement along the same lines.[4] With that being said, part-time employment is still the norm for female hockey players. As of 2019, all women on national service were given a daily allowance sum of Rs 600 by the All India Football Federation, whereas males were paid Rs 1000 for home games and around 15-25 dollars for overseas tours.[5]
All of this indicates the wide pay gap between men and women players.
Despite the fact that India has a number of policies linked to equal pay in sports, such as the National Sports Policy, the Khelo India Scheme, and the National Sports Development Fund 1988, none of these regulations expressly address the problem. Many talented female players are losing interest in sports due to a lack of financial security.[6] For instance, Dipika Pallikal, despite being India’s most decorated squash player and having a ranking considerably higher than her male counterparts, refused to compete in the National Squash Championship for the fourth year in a row in 2015 unless equal prize money was assured to both men and women competitors.[7]
LESS SPONSORSHIP OF WOMEN TEAMS
Investments are scarce for a women’s team or league since they are less popular and receive less viewership than men’s team. As a result, even in terms of sponsorship or investment in sports brands, there is no equality. Men’s sports have a massive fan base that epitomizes sports as an activity.[8] Thus, money creation, including merchandising, ticket sales, advertising, and so on, is biased toward male players. When the same is done for women, it is deemed to be less beneficial for sponsors.
Some other factors leading to this trend in sponsorships are male and female stereotyping by society and lack of media coverage. These factors ultimately affect the overall income of female athletes, who consequently earn less than their male counterparts.[9]
BIASED TREATMENT BY THE MEDIA
Women’s sports receive barely 4% of total media coverage, according to UNESCO reports, with the exception of major festivals.[10] Similar is the case with crowd turnouts. According to another study, the media frequently mentions the physical appearance and personal life of female athletes rather than their monumental achievements. In fact, how they are depicted in the media differs significantly from how their male counterparts are portrayed. The media’s usage of adjectives like “older,” “married,” and “unmarried” to characterize athletes is mostly aimed at women rather than males.[11]
LACK OF WOMEN COACHES
“Across the board, we need more women coaches and support staff. There is a certain level of comfort and safety while talking to female coaches that will affect your both physical and emotional well-being. But there also has to be education amongst male coaches on how to have these conversations.
-Shikha Tandon, an Olympic swimmer
The Bridge, a digital media house, analyzed that the Indian women coaches were just 4 out of the 64 events associated with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.[12] This reflects the lack of women coaches and opportunities given to them in our country. Women, even when appointed in the sports federations, are expected to address the increasing complaints of sexual assaults in the sporting industry.[13] This is seen as offensive by many women coaches as they feel that their worth is perceived only as security guards who have to protect the women athletes and nothing more.
Sexual harassment faced by women players
Being subjected to sexual harassment, being condemned for the choice of attire, and being objectified- women in the sports industry have been facing these problems for a long time.[14]
In fact, The Indian Express filed an RTI before the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in 2020, which revealed that 29 of the 45 sexual harassment complaints filed in the previous decade were against sports coaches.[15] In 2021, a 19-year-old national-level runner filed a sexual harassment complaint at a police station in Chennai against the famous Tamil Nadu coach ‘P Nagarajan’. Two months after that complaint, seven more women athletes filed similar allegations against the coach.[16]
In another instance, female athletes were greeted with obscene printed messages pasted in the restroom of Kanteerava stadium in Bengaluru, asking female athletes to masturbate before practice.[17] What’s even more derogatory is that it was signed by the sports authority itself. The 2017 incident deeply shook the athletes to the point where they were scared to use the stadiums’ restrooms. Pramila Aiyappa, an athlete turned coach said, “Such things will further discourage parents from allowing their children to take up sport.”
Many female athletes have taken their lives after facing sexual harassment. One instance of which is where after facing repeated molestation by the DGP, an aspiring minor tennis player committed suicide. The accused was initially sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment but later, his jail term was reduced to five months.[18]
INVISIBILISATION OF THE LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY AND TREATMENT OF INTERSEX WOMEN IN INDIAN SPORTS
Marginalization of the LGBTQIA+ community in the sports sector is a vital concern. Our sports policies barely acknowledge trans and non-binary gender identities. The majority of sports regulations restrict their terminology to men and women alone and non-binary individuals are straightaway ignored by the sporting industry.[19] Gender-neutral changing rooms and restrooms are lacking in stadiums and fields. Furthermore, training for various sports is limited to men and women.
As an example one may cite the case of Dutee Chand, a professional sprinter and who the first Indian athlete to come out as gay. Owing to a sex test in 2014 which reflected high testosterone levels in her body due to a medical condition ‘hyperandrogenism’, she was banned from competing in sports as a ‘female’. At the age of 18, she challenged the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), where she won a landmark case that set a precedent for other athletes facing similar bans.[20] In 2019, she admitted being in a same-sex relationship, due to which she had to face severe backlash from her home village. Even after conforming to a binary identity, she had to face trouble solely because policies in the sports sector have failed to recognize the problems faced by people due to their sexual orientation.[21]
Santhi Soundarajan, an athlete from South India also failed a sex test, after which she had to face severe discrimination. The athletic community labeled her a cheater and shunned her. She went through a period of severe depression and attempted suicide shortly after. It was only in 2013 that she was able to become an athletic coach after a lot of effort.[22] Her petition to reclaim her medal went viral in 2016 and she received a lot of support from the public. These instances demonstrate a grim picture of how intersex female athletes have been initially treated in Indian sports.
ADDRESSING THE PROBLEMS: BRINGING A CHANGE IN THE PRESENT SCENARIO
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DRAFT NATIONAL SPORTS DEVELOPMENT BILL, 2013
Draft National Sports Development Bill, 2013[23] is the only legislation for sports in India but it has not been passed yet. Implementing the bill could benefit women athletes as some of its key features are relating to sexual harassment.
As per chapter IV part C of the bill, every National Sports Federation, the National Olympic Committee, the Sports Authority of India, and other sports bodies have a duty to prevent sexual harassment in sports and shall adopt the following measures:
- Notifying, publicizing, and disseminating guidelines for the safety and well-being of everyone involved in sports.
- Establishment of appropriate systems for ensuring a healthy relationship between coach and athletes.
- Providing a sufficient number of women members in the coaching and support staff to a woman athlete or team of women athletes.
- Providing adequate working, leisure, healthy, and hygienic environments for women.
- Providing reasonable assistance to an athlete who faces sexual harassment by an act or omission of any third party and initiating appropriate legal action.
- Setting up a complaints committee for redressal of the complaints in a time-bound manner.
Proviso attached to part C states that to prevent any undue pressure or influence from within the organization, the complaints committee would have an impartial member who is familiar with the concerns of sexual harassment, either from a non-governmental organization or another body/person, as the case may be.
Thus, our policymakers should give effect to this bill at the earliest.
IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE STUDY OF NCW ON ‘GENDER ISSUE IN SPORT IN INDIA’
The 2005 study[24] on ‘gender issue in sport in India’ by the National Commission for Women (NCW) provided certain recommendations for the improvement of the condition of women’s sport in India. Though the total recommendations were 33, some of those relevant to the present day scenario are listed below:
- Ex-players, like the Indian Ladies Cricket Association, should be elected or nominated to the federations.
- When girls travel for competitions, they should be provided more security.
- Male office bearers outnumber female office-bearers in state federations and national federations of women’s sport. This ratio and system should be changed. There should be more female officeholders, and rules should be enacted in this regard.
- There must be a mechanism in place to monitor the operations of sports associations, government-run sports schools, and other sports facilities. The mismanagement of funds and facilities should be curtailed.
- Female athletes should get instruction in time management, sport psychology, personal hygiene, self-defense, and career counselling, among other topics.
- Sport sciences training facilities should be established, and girls should be informed that sport sciences may be a viable career choice for them. Further, sports sciences should be utilized more regularly in women’s sports to improve performance.
- Women players should be given consultations on rehabilitation after their retirement.
- The media plays a critical role in the growth of women’s sports. Women’s sports should receive greater media attention so that more people are aware of them. Girls will also be encouraged to take part in sports this way.
- Women’s sports should be sponsored by private enterprises. They would be willing to finance women’s sports if the government provided them with certain perks. Also, women players should be given jobs by private sector enterprises.
- Indian games should be promoted in rural areas as they are more economical.
LEARNING FROM OUR STATES
India can learn from Kerala and Karnataka. Kerala is the state which hosted India’s first-ever transgender sports meet in 2017. It was an excellent initiative, working towards uplifting the non-heteroeneous communities. In this way, by bringing specialized events, training camps, free coaching, and outreach initiatives to people from this group all around India, access to varied sectors of society may be offered.[25]
On the policy front, the Karnataka Sports Policy 2018 aims to offer training camps, free coaching, outreach programs, and specialized events to the LGBTQIA+ community, with the goal of ensuring “access to diverse sectors of society”.[26]
Even Manipur has come up with its first transgender football team in 2020, formed with the help of an Imphal-based NGO.[27] There is so much to learn from these states and its high time that such policies are applied centrally and a mechanism is put into place for their accountability.
ALLOWING MEN TO COMPETE WITH WOMEN
Athletes competing in Paralympic sports are not classified as having a specific medical condition, rather they are put in a racing category based on the motions their bodies can do in relation to the sport.[28] According to research[29] published by ‘The Conversation,’ the world’s top source of research-based news and commentary, eradicating sex segregation and replacing it with a system similar to that used in Paralympic sport could be one way of preventing gender barriers to come in the way of sportspersons.
The Conversation proposes that it would make sense to eliminate the labels of male and female given to able-bodied sports and replace them with categories based on the ability of bodies to move in that sport.
Given how strongly society is divided along gender lines, the public is unlikely to embrace this concept since we are not used to males competing against women.[30] Several studies have however revealed that the more males compete against women, the more they accept that women may be good athletes, indicating that this idea is worth giving thought to.
CONCLUSION
The article discussed the possible legal solutions that could be given effect. However, we need to understand that there is no bigger solution than to bring a change in our attitude as a society, especially for those in power- towards sportswomen. Changing our old-age perceptions, encouraging women players, and giving them the recognition they deserve- all these factors are the need of the hour.
[1] What do Indians think about women in sport?, BBC (Mar. 5, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51701924.
[2]A significant pay gap: BCCI’s annual contracts for men and women highlight disparity again, SCROLL (May 20, 2021, 06:26 PM), https://scroll.in/field/995372/a-significant-pay-gap-bccis-annual-contracts-for-men-and-women-highlight-disparity-again.
[3] Nidhima Taneja, BCCI can close the wage gap in women’s cricket. Just look at tennis and US soccer, THE PRINT (Sept. 26, 2021, 12:22 PM), https://theprint.in/opinion/pov/bcci-can-close-the-wage-gap-in-womens-cricket-just-look-at-tennis-and-us-soccer/740422/
[4] The Bridge Desk, Haryana govt announces Rs 2.5 crore for each men hockey player from state, Rs 50 lakh for women, THE BRIDGE (Aug 8, 2021, 8:38 PM), https://thebridge.in/hockey/haryana-govt-cash-awards-men-women-hockey-player-24235
[5] Nicolai Nayak, Sexism, financial insecurity, gender disparity: The many battles of women’s football in India, SCROLL (Jun 24, 2019, 04:30 PM), https://scroll.in/field/927595/sexism-financial-insecurity-gender-disparity-the-many-battles-of-womens-football-in-india.
[6] Shinjinee Namhata, Gender Pay-Gap in Sports, GLOBAL SPORTS POLICY REVIEW (Aug 19, 2021), https://www.g-spr.com/post/gender-pay-gap-in-sports.
[7] Md Imtiaz , 5 Indian sportswomen who voiced their thoughts on equal pay, THE BRIDGE (Sept. 18, 2020, 04:06 PM), https://thebridge.in/featured/5-indian-sportswomen-voiced-thoughts-equal-pay/?infinitescroll=1.
[8] Ritirupa Acharjee, The Gift Boxes Containing Race Cars, Football Or Cricket Bats Are Solely For Our Brothers, YKA (Mar. 30, 2021), https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2021/03/gender-bias-in-the-world-of-sports/.
[9] Rena Afami, Gender Inequality In Sports Sponsorships, SFLA (Mar. 31, 2021), https://moneysmartathlete.com/2021/03/31/gender-inequality-in-sports-sponsorships.
[10] Supra note 8.
[11] Dr. Deepti Kohli , Gender Discrimination in Sports: Depleting Respect of Women Players in India, IJSR, Dec 2017, https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2021/03/gender-bias-in-the-world-of-sports/ .
[12] The Bridge Desk, 4 out of 64 — Where are the women coaches in Indian national teams?, THE BRIDGE (Mar. 15, 2021, 8:00 AM), https://thebridge.in/others/4-women-coaches-india-national-teams-20002.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Sagnik Kundu, 5 instances of sexual harassment in Sports in India where late or no action was taken. SPORTSKEEDA (Oct. 7, 2021), https://www.sportskeeda.com/sports/5-instances-sexual-harassment-sports-india-where-late-no-action-taken.
[15] RTI Exposes Rampant Sexual Harassment of Women Sportspersons at SAI Centres, THE WIRE (Jan. 16, 2020), https://thewire.in/sport/rti-sai-sexual-harassment.
[16] Nihal Koshie, Seven more top athletes accuse Tamil Nadu coach of abuse, going back years, THE INDIAN EXPRESS (July 10, 2021, 12:07 PM), https://indianexpress.com/article/india/tamil-nadu-athletes-accuse-coach-of-abuse-7397454/.
[17] Manuja Veerappa, Dirty message greets female athletes at Kanteerava stadium, THE TIMES OF INDIA (Dec. 13, 2016, 06:20 AM), https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Dirty-message-greets-femaleathletes-at-Kanteerava%20stadium/articleshow/55946081.cms.
[18] Supra note 11.
[19] Tanya K. Y., Women have gotten lesser advantage compared to men in sports, THE BRIDGE (Feb. 24, 2020, 5:10 PM), https://thebridge.in/featured/women-have-gotten-lesser-advantage-compared-to-men-in-sports/?infinitescroll=1.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Supra note 19.
[22] sheeta Sharma, Santhi Soundarajan & The Misogyny Of Sex Verification Tests In Sports, FEMINISM IN INDIA (Nov. 25, 2020), https://feminisminindia.com/2020/11/25/santhi-soundarajan-gender-determination-test/.
[23] The National Sports Development Bill, 2013, https://yas.nic.in/sites/default/files/File921.pdf.
[24] Gender Issue in Sports, http://ncwapps.nic.in/pdfReports/Gender%20Issue%20in%20Sports.pdf.
[25] Supra note 19.
[26] Kruthika N.S., It’s Important For Sport to Be More LGBTQIA+ Friendly, THE WIRE (Sept. 29, 2018), https://thewire.in/sport/india-sports-lgbtqia-representation
[27] Nicolai Nayak, Breaking barriers in sport: Meet India’s first transgender football team, SCROLL (Jun 17, 2020, 10:20 AM), https://scroll.in/field/964848/breaking-barriers-in-sport-meet-indias-first-transgender-football-team
[28] Roslyn Kerr, Why men should be allowed to compete with women in sport, THE CONVERSATION (Jan 16, 2018, 04:30 PM), https://theconversation.com/why-it-might-be-time-to-eradicate-sex-segregation-in-sports-89305
[29] C. Obel & Roslyn Kerr, Reassembling sex: reconsidering sex segregation policies in sport, 10 International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 305-320 (2017)
[30] Supra note 25.
YLCC would like to thank Aditi Aggarwal on her valuable insights in this article.
