No male coaches for women

Haryana Sports Minister Sandeep Singh, the former hockey star, has said that from now on, only women coaches would train female sportspersons in the state-run academies. This seems a regressive step, for it is sport that has become a vehicle for women’s empowerment in a region where gender inequality is rife. Haryana’s women — athletes, wrestlers, boxers, shooters and, most recently, a teenaged cricketer — have been earning laurels for the country. They must be given the best possible coaching to ensure that they become the best they can. To confine sportswomen and coaches to gendered pigeonholes is a backward step; besides, there are not enough women coaches, and most top coaches are men.

But there’s another facet of the story — despite Haryana’s high position among Indian states in the Human Development Index, it is counted among India’s most unsafe states for women. The achievements of Haryana’s female sportspersons are all the more creditable because of the misogyny and high crime rate against women in the state, but their feats obscure the fact that it is a dangerous state for women. It is possible that more parents would let their daughters become sportspersons if they are more confident about their safety. Indeed, Singh explained the rationale of the decision thus: ‘The women players will feel more secure if they have women coaches and managers and their families too will be less anxious during their travel.’

A recent report revealed that 45 complaints of sexual harassment — 29 of them against coaches — had been made in the Sports Authority of India centres across India in the last decade. One coach — in Hisar in Haryana, incidentally — was found guilty of sexual harassment of minors after a three-year probe. By then, he had retired and got away with a minor pension cut. The Union Sports Ministry stated that 14 ‘people’ have been penalised. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is merely the tip of the iceberg — male coaches are often predators who harass girls whose training and safety they are responsible for. This, sadly, is part of a larger societal problem that needs to be tackled at a bigger scale. Segregation is a short-term, inadequate solution — the gender that is causing the problem must be sensitised, penalised and reformed.