Playing dark games

Vinayak Padmadeo

In a series of mortifying events, a number of female athletes have in the last few months opened up about sexual harassment during training by their coaches. A few like handball player, Seema Sharma, have also filed an FIR against influential Indian Olympic Association (IOA) treasurer Anandeshwar Panday.

A string of revelations has put into perspective that much is to be done to safeguard women athletes. In June, a female cyclist had lodged a complaint against the chief coach of the sprint team, accusing him of making sexual overtures when the team was in Slovenia in May as part of the preparation camp for the Asian Championships.

After an initial inquiry, the coach was fired but what was surprising was that neither the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) nor Sports Authority of India (SAI) officials realised that the contingent had no female staff. While there is no guarantee that the presence of female staff would have prevented it, the mere fact that a minor girl in a foreign country had to deal with such a grave offence on her own shows the officials’ lack of awareness and that the sensitisation programmes undertaken by SAI and the federations aren’t yielding noteworthy results.

So, where is the problem?

The biggest issue is whether the victims of abuse have a voice. As Dr Payoshini Mitra, CEO, Global Observatory for Gender Equality in Sports, puts it: “the world of sports is a typically hierarchical society, where the athletes’ interest always comes last.”

“The athletes are at bottom of the pile in the sports organisations. Often the victims themselves are not aware of the rules. Then, there are persons who are aware of crime abuse or harassment but do not take any action. We call them the bystanders, who are only interested in maintaining the status quo,” Dr Mitra explains.

“Such complaints become a risk to the reputation of the organisation. Idea is to safeguard the name of the organisation or the sport from getting sullied. Sport federation globally is hierarchical, it is male dominated so it becomes tougher for the victim,” she adds.

Dr Mitra makes a valid point. In the case of the female sailor, who had raised her voice against the coach for making her uncomfortable, was made to appear before the disciplinary and ethics sub-committee of the Yachting Association of India (YAI), an all-male member committee headed by Lt Gen Sanjeev Shrivastava (retd). At the hearing, she was told that the accused coach was merely a hard taskmaster and he wanted the sailing team to work hard on their fitness.

Cases swept under carpet

Even as the Vishaka guidelines were being implemented and the National Sports Development Code of 2011 made it mandatory for the federations to have a committee to deal with such cases, officials have been callous, if not ignorant, in dealing with them. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) had brushed aside a complaint by several shooters against the Kazakh rifle coach Stanislav Lapidus for misconduct.

The complaint signed by Anjali Vedpathak, Sanjeev Rajput, Ayonika Paul, Lajja Gauswami, Kuheli Ganguly, Tejaswini Sawant and Suma Shirur also mentioned that the coach “asked for sexual favours from a few junior shooters.” The complaint was filed in August 2015 and was sent to the disciplinary committee. Even before the committee could deliberate on the complaint, NRAI bosses had given a clean chit to the coach saying “it is unfortunate that such a derogatory allegation has been put in such a light manner.”

Similarly, the Archery Association of India (AAI) rubbished a complaint of a female shooter against High Performance Director Sanjeeva Singh for forcing her to run while she was in the midst of her menstrual cycle.

“He forced me to run and threatened me that he would make me go home. Somehow, I completed a round walking around the field. Then again I told him ‘sir I can’t run, I am on my periods’. He yelled: ‘get out of the field if you are medically ill. You have no right to be in the NCOE’,” the archer had said.

Both AAI and SAI announced that a committee would probe the incident. To this day, Singh is still running the show at the SAI’s Sonepat regional centre.

Serious charges

Last year a senior project officer employed with SAI was arrested for sexual assault on a schoolgirl. After the parents filed an FIR under IPC section 354B (for criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe) and under section 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, he was arrested and was incarcerated at Tihar jail.

Similarly, former secretary general of Badminton Association of India (BAI) Vijai Sinha and his son Nishant were arrested after four girls from Babu Banarasi Das Uttar Pradesh Badminton Academy lodged an FIR for various charges, including rape, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation and breach of trust.

Sports lawyer and former athlete Parth Goswami says the problem is that in most cases the victims of sexual abuse rarely get the right remedy through police action.

“Almost all the federations have some committee to address complaints. The committee has the powers to take action against the accused but the remedy will only happen as per the penal code. An FIR has to be registered, case is filed and eventually the accused is convicted based on evidence,” Goswami says.

“There is another aspect to the committee. Often the athletes, who come from poor households, do not know whether they have been touched inappropriately or not. In that case, the committee has to take the role of a guide so that an FIR is lodged,” he adds.

Societal pressures

However, the biggest hurdle to safeguard female athletes and support staff and reporting of such cases is societal pressure. On many occasions, the victims get coerced into taking back the complaints fearing social backlash and boycott. In 2011 at least eight junior female wrestlers had lodged a joint complaint against the male staff being drunk and barging into their quarters at night. There would sometimes be men from outside the training venue in Lucknow which is still managed by SAI.

As soon as the news was out, the officials from the Wrestling Federation of India and SAI switched on damage control. Within days the complaint was withdrawn and the accused coaches were shunted out. Dr Mitra explains that the female victims catch a lot of heat the moment such a complaint is lodged. Using the example of shamed physician Larry Nassar, associated with the American Gymnastics team and is now in jail for assaulting over 150 gymnasts under the guise of medical treatment, she suggests the athletes don’t come forward as they fear for their career.

“Society tends to blame the women the moment any such complaint is lodged. Things like ‘why was she wearing that dress or what was the need to visit that place’ is always thrown at the victim,” said Dr Mitra, who was Dutee Chand’s biggest supporter in her hyperandrogenism case against World Athletics.

“However, the bigger issue is despite suffering for a number of years athletes don’t come out and report. Even if a number of athletes have suffered at the same hands, they rarely come together to fight against the accused. Just look at the Larry Nassar scandal. The abuse went under the radar for a number of years because athletes were fearful for their careers. Elite sports are a very controlled environment and athletes sacrifice in the name of the country and sometimes their own dignity. This high performance atmosphere in sports makes it difficult for a victim to seek redressal,” she added.