Issues faced by Women in Sports

• Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, head of the WFI (Wrestling Federation of India), has recently been accused of sexual harassment by some athletes.
• If WFI does not respond to the Sports Ministry's request for an explanation within 72 hours, the Ministry will move to take action against the Federation in accordance with the 2011 National Sports Development Code's provisions.

About allegation:

• Between 2010 and 2020, the SAI (Sports Authority of India) received 45 complaints of sexual harassment, 29 of which were against coaches, according to RTI (Right to Information) Data.
• In several of these incidents that were disclosed, the defendants received light sentences that included reassignment to a pitiful reduction in salary or pension.
• Many of the cases have dragged on for years with no apparent resolution, and some have yet to see light at the end of the tunnel.
• Germany's polls in 2021 raised the issue of sports violence. In May 2021, the Federal Parliament's Sports Committee held a public hearing on sexualized, physical, and emotional violence in sports.

Challenges faced by women in Sports:

Income disparity

• Being paid half as much as or less than their male counterparts is the first obstacle that female athletes must overcome. Whatever the discipline, there are glaring differences in the earnings of male and female players. Even with prize money, this is true.

Commodification of women

• On the field, just as in the streets, female athletes are objectified. Women are not seen as potential and talent-filled individuals, but rather as commodities displaying themselves for men's amusement by everyone from coaches to commentators to the audience.

Job insecurity

• In addition to the fact that it appears unlikely for a female athlete in India to have a steady salary, there is also the unsettling issue of job security. Female athletes are occasionally forced to take on other jobs in order to supplement their income due to the limited financing that the teams and organisations receive for their training and equipment. They are unable to give their training and sport their full attention as a result, which frequently compels them to withdraw from the competition.

Lack of access

• Without having access. 1.3 million fewer girls than males get the chance to participate in high school athletics. Girls must search elsewhere for sports because there isn't enough physical education in schools and there aren't many options for them to play in high school and college. These other sports may not exist or may be more expensive.

Safety and transportation issues:

• Sports participants must have a location to practise, and for many females, especially those living in densely populated cities, that means walking through dangerous areas to get to facilities or being without transportation to reach facilities located miles away. A girl and her family may have no choice but to stay at home if a safe option, such as carpooling with other families, is unavailable.

Lack of positive role models:

• Today's girls are constantly exposed to pictures of physical beauty rather than strong, independent female role models in sports. For some females, it's more vital to fit into the stereotype they're told to maintain than to stand out. Them can experience peer pressure at any age, and if it isn't countered by strong encouragement to engage in sports and healthy physical exercise, the outcomes could cause girls to stop trying entirely.

How might sports assist promote gender equality?

Sport has the potential to advance gender equality since it promotes balanced involvement (SDG Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all Achieve women and girls)

• Women and girls can become more independent and take advantage of sport's positive effects on their health and psychosocial conditions through physical activity and sport.
• Both men and women's physical and mental health can benefit from participating in sports.
• Girls who participate in sports as teenagers and young adults had a 20% lower lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.
• Women who participate in sports frequently have more educational and job options, which can result in more economic empowerment for them.
• Sports engagement by women can influence society perceptions of women and their skills.
• By witnessing women succeed in athletics, more women may be motivated to pursue their own ambitions and break down gender stereotypes about what women are capable of.

Conclusion:

• India's sports industry is still developing. An all-encompassing strategy ought to be used to quicken this pace of development. Infrastructure development, talent spotting for sports, regular sports event planning, and grassroots awareness raising are all necessary.

Ahom Burial Mounds in Assam

• The Charaideo Maidams in Assam has just been selected as a candidate for the UNESCO World Heritage Center by the Union Government.

More on the news:

• From among the 52 locations across the nation seeking for the World Heritage Site tag, The Prime Minister chose Maidams mound burial site of Assam.
• A team of the UNESCO National Heritage Committee would visit Assam in September to inspect the Maidams and take a decision in March next year.
• There are two categories of nomination – cultural sites and natural sites. The Maidams will be nominated in the category of cultural sites.
• India has 40 World Heritage Sites – 32 of them cultural sites, seven natural sites and one mixed site. Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park are among the seven natural sites. Currently, there is no World Heritage Site in the category of cultural heritage in the Northeast.

About Charaideo Maidams:

• The Charaideo Maidams of Assam are the Ahom equivalent of the pyramids of ancient Egypt.
• The maidams stand in for the Tai Ahom community of Assam's late mediaeval mound burial practise (13th–19th century CE).
• The members of the Ahom royal family's mortal bones, which were previously interred alongside their personal effects, are now preserved by the Charaideo Maidams.
• 90 royal burials at Charaideo are the best preserved, most representative, and complete instances of the mound burial tradition of the Ahoms out of the 386 Maidams or Moidams that have been discovered so far.
• The Ahom kings adopted cremation after the 18th century and started burying the cremated remains in a Maidam at Charaideo.
• Importance: The Northeast does not currently have any cultural heritage listed as in the World Heritage Sites.
• When the nation is commemorating Lachit Barphukan's 400th birthday, the nomination of the Charaideo Maidams has gained prominence.

About Ahom Kingdom:

• In 1253, Chao Lung Siu-Ka-Pha established the Ahom dynasty.
• Up until the British annexation of Assam in 1826, the Ahom dynasty ruled for around 600 years.
• The Ahom dynasty's first capital was Charaideo, located more than 400 kilometres east of Guwahati.

Hakku Patra

• Five families from the Banjara (Lambani) clan received Hakku Patra (land title deeds) from the Prime Minister in a symbolic ceremony in Malkhed, in the Karnataka district of Kalaburagi. The ceremony was organised by the State Revenue Department.
• The Banjaras are a significant scheduled caste sub-group in Karnataka, despite the fact that given the way they live, they are viewed as a tribal tribe.

What are title deeds or hakku patras?

• The holder of a title deed is the legal owner of the property described in the document.
• Owners can apply for bank loans using the title deeds as documentation.
• Additionally, they will be permitted to purchase or sell property for which the government has issued a title deed.

About the Banjara people:

• The words "banjara" and "vanj" both refer to trade and travel, respectively. Their language, Gorboli, has vocabulary from other languages.
• These nomads ended up all over Asia and Europe and were an essential part of the supply chain for villages.
• Many tribes, including the Banjaras, opposed the British attempts to annex their territory for plantations and recruit them as slave labour.
• Banjaras, who have their origins in Rajasthan, currently reside in a number of States and go by a variety of names: in Rajasthan, they go by Gwar or Gwaraiya; in Andhra Pradesh, Lambada or Lambadi; in Karnataka, Lambani.
• They are listed as different caterogories in the States as Vimukta Jati/denotified tribes, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Other Backward Class, and Scheduled Caste.

National Girl Child Day

India observes National Girl Child Day on January 24 each year.

About National Girl Child Day:

• The purpose of National Girl Child Day is to increase public awareness of the injustices, discrimination, and exploitation that girls suffer in society.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development originally established National Girl Child Day in 2008.
• The major goals are to alter how society views females, reduce female feticide, and raise awareness of the declining sex ratio.

National Girl Child Day's goals:

• National Girl Child Day is intended to raise awareness of the rights that girls possess, to provide them with equal opportunity to everyone else, to support the nation's girl children, and to do away with gender-based prejudices.
• Additionally, it asks for raising awareness of the injustices that female children experience and educating people on the importance of educating girls.
• The primary goals are to alter society's perception of girls, reduce female feticide, and raise awareness of the declining sex ratio.
• In order to improve their standard of life in society, it also tries to elevate the girl's status.
• Girls and women struggle greatly with gender discrimination throughout their lives.
• It also strives to combat gender prejudices and support the nation's girl children.

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2022:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually meet with recipients of Rashtriya Bal Puraskar on the occasion of National Girl Child Day and as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. The children's outstanding accomplishments will be recognised by the programme.
• The award winners would attend the occasion from their district headquarters along with their parents and any interested district magistrates.

Issues Related to Girl Child:

Education:

• Girls are urged to drop out of school early and are also increasingly involved in family chores.
• According to a research by the International Centre for Research on Women, girls who have dropped out of school are 3.4 times more likely than those who are still enrolled to be married or to have a stable marriage.

Health and Mortality:

• In India, discrimination against girls is a problem both inside the home and in the community. In India, inequality translates to uneven chances for women.
• In India, females continue to have an 8.3% higher under-five mortality rate than boys. For males, this is 14% higher globally.

Female infanticide and foeticide:

• Female foeticide is one of the most common crimes in India.
• Strong son preference, the dowry custom, and the patrilineal requirement of an heir are the causes of female foeticide.
• In the age range 0–6 years, the census of 2011 found the lowest sex ratio ever (914), with 3 million missing females, down from 78.8 million in 2001 to 75.8 million in 2011.

Government initiatives to carry out National Girl Child Day's goals:

The government has adopted a variety of measures in this regard, some of which were enumerated by the women and child development ministry.

• Save the Girl Child,
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana
• CBSE's Udaan Program
• Free or reduced-cost education for girls,
• Reservation for women in colleges and universities