November 9: * Sometime back, Arvind Khanna, secretary-general of the Punjab Olympic Association, said, ``The sports department spends considerable amount of money on low-yield tamashas like women's festivals and such other events.''

* The Government has no specific budget for women's sport. It expects the spending to come from the overall sports budget.

* The SAI has numerous schemes but none for women only.

* The National athletics championships more often than not sees direct finals for many track event. The reason: too few participants.

* Trials for recent Delhi state women's chess team attracted just two players.

* Trials to select the Chandigarh tennis team for the National Women's festival in Chennai recently, were conducted three days prior to the meet. No arrangements were made for booking, sending entries and kits. The girls were told to make their own arrangements.

* In Maharashtra, till last year, a women's sports festival was organised but after the new sports policy of the Sena-BJP Government was unveiled, the funds earmarked for the women's festival was diverted to encourage rural sports.

* A parent on why she does not want her 14-year-old daughter going for the National athletics championships: ``I just don't want to take a chance.'' The message is loud and clear.

There cannot be many times you would have seen a bunch of school girls playing amongst themselves. Even in public schools in major metros, girls when they are interested in sport, usually play with the boys. Sure there are separate teams, but for most practice sessions they are clubbed together. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it is just that women's sport by and large, is a mere add-on.

Women in Indian sport have struggled to carve a niche for themselves. Theirs has been a difficult balancing act: for at one hand is a society, which by definition has assigned a role for them, and that role does not include sport. If some women have been able to continue with sport even after marriage and childbirth it is largely because of their husband's encouraging attitude or because the spouse himself has been a sportsperson. Indian sport has number of such cases:

Reeth Abraham (husband Sunil was a sprinter, who represented India at the 1982 Asian Games); Shiny Wilson (husband Wilson Cherian, is a former international and national record holder in swimming); Rachita Mistry (husband, Homiyar, was a former state level athlete); Women's weightlifter Bharti Singh (husband played hockey for India); Badminton star Madhumita Bisht (husband Vikram Singh played for India and is now a coach)Men and women players getting married to each other has helped the women continue with sport. It is not uncommon to see two chess players get married (Pravin and Bhagyashree Thipsay or Anupama Gokhale and Raghunandan Gokhale); or in table tennis (Kamlesh and Monalisa; Sujay Ghorpade and Ritu Bhola and many years before them Farokh Khodaiji and Kaity Chargeman); in hockey (Surjit Singh and Chanchal Randhawa); and athletics (Neelam J Singh and Jaswant Singh).

But at the same time, there have been women who bid sport good-bye once they got married. They could probably have continued, but they chose otherwise. Family responsibilities meant they themselves assumed the role of the homekeeper, while the husband went out. Women like Ashwini Nachappa and Vandana Rao certainly had a few more years of athletics in them.

It is not uncommon to see organisers push the women's tennis final to a side court or to an odd timing to have the men's final at a time convenient to TV networks.As one of them says, ``Take what they are giving, or even that might stop.'' There, however, are some exceptions, like the Bengal Table Tennis Association, which had equal prize money for men and women's winner. Both got Rs. 10,000 each.

Arati Ponnappa, is a daughter of two former sportspersons, PC Ponappa, a quarter-miler and Nirmala, herself a good athlete at the National level. Yet, the daughter, Aarti says, ``More importance is given to men's sport in our country while women do not get not even half as much. There are many international tournaments for women but no sponsors come forward. ''

Sreerupa Bose, a former cricketer and now the manager-cum-coach of the Indian women's team for the upcoming World Cup in India says, ``I don't believe that achievement has been lacking in Indian women's sport. But we do have some great contributions from the likes of PT Usha and Shiny Abraham.''

Her comments are significant because the Women's Cricket Association of India has had some method in its planning. Maybe, because unlike many other disciplines, WCAI is a separate entity. The WCAI in a significant move has been able to get the World Cup for Cricket in India. Further, they have managed a good sponsor in Air India to take care of the ongoing camps, and are also believed to have found a major sponsor for the main event.

Anuradha Dutt, general secretary of the WCAI, lays the blame on the doors of the media. She says the media has not paid due attention to women's sport in general. ``Sports is not perceived as a thing for women. As a result money is not coming. Then with limited participation, the standard, too, goes down.''

Former basketballer Jayavanthi Shyam, feels, ``There is talent but no initiative is being taken. The sponsors hesitate to come forward because they do not get any mileage from women's sport."

Seema Bafna (nee Bhandari) feels that participation of women players from states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh is very less because of the lack of interest exhibited by orthodox families.''

Sonal Kawde, a basketballer from Maharashtra, says, ``Parents would like their daughters to acquire academic qualifications first and then get married. The lack of encouragement shown by parents is the main reason for the declining standards. Besides, there is so much politics in sports that many a parent feels that they would lose control over their daughter, if she goes out to play.''

Safety and concern for the female wards is another factor. As Madhuri Gurnule, who represented India in World Cross Country championships in South Africa last year, says, ``Some parents are hesitant to send their daughters out to participate in tourneys, despite their selection in the team.''

Suman Rawat, nee Mehta, a bronze medallist in the 1986 Asian Games, says, ``Women have to be encouraged to play sport first, then talk about achievements.''

Maybe, that's where the remedy lies. Encourage the women to play first, and then we talk about achievements.

*(With inputs from Balbir Singh / Chandigarh, Errol D Cruz/ Mumbai, Roopa Rao / Bangalore, Saibal Bose / Calcutta, Chetan Kulkarni / Nagpur)

Some memorable moments

* Aarti Saha became the first Indian woman to cross the English Channel. (1959). Later, Anita Sood became the fastest Asian swimmer to cross the channel.

* Table tennis star Indu Puri won World Railways title in 1978. She also defeated the then world champion Park Yung Sun of North Korea in 1978 Asian Championships at Kuala Lumpur.

* Indian women's hockey team headed by Rajbir Kaur won Asian Games gold medal (1982).

* Golden Girl PT Usha missed Los Angeles (1984) Olympics bronze by one-hundredth of a second but the very next year she bagged all the Asian Athletic Track and Field at Jakarta (1985) gold in her events: had the maximum number of gold medals in Seoul Asiad (1986).

* Shiny Wilson dominated the 800m vent in Asia; has seven consecutive gold medals in 800m in SAFF Games.

* Asha Aggarwal is the first Indian woman to win marathon title in Asian Championships (1985).

* Shooter Soma Dutta claimed Asian Games silver and bronze (1986)

* Anupama Gokhale (1985) and Bhagyashree Thipsay (1991) won Asian Chess titles.

* Kunjarani Devi has the rare distinction of being one of the top 100 women lifters of the century. She brought maximum medals for India from World Championships 17 silvers, 1 bronze.

* K. Malleswari won World Championships gold and equalled world record during World Championships in China (1995).

* Aparna Popat finished runners-up in World junior badminton championship in Denmark (1996).

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.