In the days ensuing the Olympics, our two medallists (Sakshi Malik and PV Sindhu) and two almost
medallist (Dipa Karmarkar and Aditi Ashok) have been relegated to eternal glory. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. They deserve every bit of the adulation (and maybe we would have seen more such enterprising athletes if the attention is given before the games rather than after it.) But, then they were started to be linked to the “Save the girl child campaign”. So much so that, we all made them intentional / unintentional poster children of the campaign. The fact that it takes Olympic medals to justify saving our girl children is a horrific idea indeed. Every life deserves to live and the “Save the girl child campaign” was brought to the fore because the girls were faring much worse in the infanticide statistics. Don’t they deserve to be saved even if there are no Olympic medals to point out that girls bring laurels to our country? The fact that it is a life – a living breathing soul – gives them a right to live whether or not there are poster children to support justification of their existence.
Please do not get me wrong. I do not intend to say that we should ignore the glories the girls brought to our country. But that glory should be used as a justification to encourage sports and its wider reach. Female infanticide, however, is a different matter altogether – which deserves equal attention but the right kind of attention. Linking the two issues dilutes their importance and the attention they both require. Why are we sending out a wrong message? That till a girl wins a medal, her birth and her existence do not merit automatic celebration. So the message is, “Don’t kill your daughters not because they are human beings and have as much as value as your sons; but because they may someday become potential medal winners.”
Some social media enthusiasts even went ahead and dug out a picture of PV Sindhu in traditional saree regalia to demonstrate that she could carry the weight of tradition and wield an Olympic medal winning badminton racquet with equal pride. Don’t be fooled by the short skirt and the unapologetic aggression on court, it was suggested. This girl respects boundaries. The kind that really matter. What a tragedy to provide such justification to people who are still hell-bent on seeing women play the traditional roles of the society no matter how much they prove themselves capable of something. This reminds me of the now famous Sania Mirza interview where Rajdeep Sardesai proved his very
orthodox mindset by asking a very sexist question about motherhood and settling down; a question she didn’t take too lightly. The popular anchor in the end acknowledged it wasn’t something he might ask a male athlete. But, it took a usually calm and composed tennis ace to slam him down to make him realize his folly. The issue is that no matter how progressive they pretend to be, this is exactly what comes naturally to people whereas feminism needs to drilled down their throats.
Let’s give credit to PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar, Aditi Ashok and Sania Mirza where it’s due without appropriating them to any campaigns. They are just doing the best they can to realize their ambitions and to excel in their chosen disciplines regardless of the cultural, political and sociological tampering that goes on around their gender. An ambitious woman in any case is an anomaly till she makes it big and then everybody wants a little piece of her. Then she becomes an emblem of something that is obviously bigger than her. The country, culture and conditioning that have impeded her growth now want credit for her success just by association.
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