Sports has the power to change the world…..it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does . It speaks to youth in a language they understand .Sports can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.
– Nelson Mandela
Sports is looked and said to be away from any type of social evil like race caste creed etc. .It is said to be for anyone and everyone. But his statement contradicts to the actual scenario of of the world of sports today. In twenty first century also ,we can see that sports is seen as man’s field .Some may disagree to this that it is not so .Women are participating and exceling in this field. But my question is that are women’s sports are given same status as men’s ? Huge disparity can be seen between sports of men and sports of women .Preference is always the males and their sports be it any in media ,be it in school ,be it salary or any other aspect .
The problem starts with the parents mentality that girls should not be a part of sports .It is because of many reasons ,like girls are weak and not suitable for sports , because of some religious beliefs ,because of the fear of what others will say ,because if any injury takes place no one would marry her etc. If girl fights all this and tries to be in this field still she has to go through a lot of problems in this field .In school where teachings of equality is given, there also disparity of gender in sports can be seen .There are trained coaches and equipment’s for boys but not for girls . Teams and training only for boys and not for girls. Funds of sports for women and men if compared is like ant infront of elephant. So hurdles – hurdles everywhere and to has to achieve goals in this field.

Even technology is becoming gendered.

Now talking about the salary of sportspersons of both gender is another comparison which can reveal the dark side of this topic. In India cricket is the most popular sport in India so I am taking example of that. Comparing the salary of both the captains of Indian men’s and women’s cricket team you can see the dispairity.Our captain of men’s cricket team Virat Kohli falls in A category of the categories A,B,C gets annual income of average 2 crores .On the same hand our captain of women’s cricket team Mithali Raj who also falls in A category of only 2 categories A and B gets average income of only 15 lacks per annum. Though she is the highest paid women cricketer in this world but is painful to know that her salary is very low even if compared to the C grade cricketers of men’s cricket. In an interview she also shared the problems she faced in early 2000s when she didn’t even had a proper kit for matches which is most basic thing for a sportsperson .her father arranged it after a lot of efforts. She always talks openly about these disparities very openly. But the fight for her and for every women sportsperson is bigger.
Media has a very big role in bringing a change or promoting things so that it can be cached by people’s eye but our media is also in the same track as others .they sometimes even add to the problems. If we carefully look at the portrayal of men’s and women’s sports in media ,we will see the difference in how they are portrayed so differently. It is seen that rather than focusing on game they focus on looks and figure of the sportsperson .We can also notice that the coverage of women’s news is noting infront of men’s. They don’t get the publicity, they don’t get the fame ,they don’t get the appreciation they are worthy of .If we ask people why the scenario is like this ,they have a ready answer that female sports doesn’t attracts audience .But question again arises why? If we will get the answer of this why and change the mindset and behavior ours towards women’s sports ,for sure we will create wonders..

For further information’s –
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326173583_Gender_unevenness_in_the_sports_pages_of_newspapers_A_case_study_based_on_Indian_womens_cricket_team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIZ24gD6XM8

This Blog page is writtern by Mahima Mishra.