FICCI Turf 2013: Panel Discussion on “Harnessing Women’s potential in Sports” had (from L-R): Ms. Sunita Godara, National Convener for Drug Abuse and Prevention, Clean Sports India and Former Asian Marathon Champion; Ms. Penny Simonds, Vice President, Women’s Hockey Federation of New Zealand; Mr. Sujit Panigrahi, CEO, Fitness 365 & Former Additional Director General (Head – Technology), CWG; Ms. Indu Puri, Former Table Tennis Player; Mr. Franz Gastler, Coach, Yuwa India — at FICCI Federation House, New Delhi.
FICCI Turf 2013 Session on “Harnessing Women’s potential in Sports”
The session was moderated by Mr. Sujit Panigrahi, CEO, Fitness365. These were the points discussed during the session:
Ms. Sunita Godara mentioned the following points: Local Sports Stars to cash on, Sensitive Parents, Breaking the myth, Safety Environment, Scrutiny of Coaches/Women Co-ordinators, Exploitation of Girl Athletics, More involvement in Sports Administration, Broadbasing/bringing equality between men and women, Sports and Fitness Pyramid, Interested administrators should run bodies, Equal Prize Money for men and women athletes, Create awareness of Physical Health and Sports Campaign, Good Ethics and Governance
Ms. Penny Simonds from SIT New Zealand highlighted the importance of New Zealand and India harnessing each other’s strength (NZ challenge is people, India’s challenge is Infrastructure). SIT has signed a memorandum with FICCI in area of Infrastructure, Sports Science and Coaching. She spoke about utilizing India Population as strength. She mentioned Family, Employment and Competitive options as barriers of empowerment. Ms. Simonds mentioned about the importance of Role Models/Celebration of womanhood, Spreading the message of Being Healthy and Strong, Encouraging girls in families, Importance of involving 50% population in India to improve medal winning possibilities, Mentoring and Support by senior athletes for positive role modelling, Projecting Women in Media, Promote workplace teams, social sports and family activities, having Administrator/Coaches in Women Sports … they must be in charge, and Career options such as Physiotherapist and Coaching.
Franz Gastler spoke at length about the Work done in Jharkhand and Bihar where child marriage rate is high. They have taught 150 girls about positive values, honesty and team spirit. He showed a video about how they fought poverty, humiliation to reach the heights and Winning in Spain to bring glory to India. The Story of fighting the odds was inspiring. He highlighted about what you can achieve even without lots of money. He talked about starting small, going it right, keeping it simple, keeping politics out and Integrating Sports with Development
Ms. Indu Puri spoke about Quantity leading to Quality, Broadbasing and increasing opportunities, Campaigns/Positive messaging
Mr. Sujit Panigrahi spoke about how Sports pays dividend not only in life to play sports, but also to live a better life, Be Active, Heath and Well-being, Active Lifestyle He gave Statistics of CWG and Olympics during last 12 years in terms of (a) Medals: By the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Indian women athletes won 37 medals, up from zero just 12 years before (b) Participation: The number of Indian female athletes who competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (six) nearly quadrupled to 23 in 2012. He spoke about the Challenges of Lack of Access (near homes), Safety and Transportation, Social Stigma, Decreased Quality of Experience/availability of quality coaches, Costs/Family budgets getting slashed, Lack of Positive Women Role Models, Role of Govt, Federation and Corporates.
The Solutions which were considered by the panelists included Building Centers of Excellence, Increasing the no. of Role Models/Golden Girls of India, Grassroot level development (expand the base | Quantity leads to Quality), Safety, Facilities, improving Cultural Sensitivity, Improve Affordability by Increased involvement in Sports Administration. The concluding remarks was that Sports is a great weapon for empowerment for Women, and at the moment it is happening silently. The effects will be more visible a decade from now on.
