mid-day editorial: Give girls a level playing field

By the time you read this, Indian badminton's sunshine girl PV Sindhu may be thinking about the chances she lost in her final yesterday. Or, maybe not. This, though, is not about the colour of the medal she wore around her neck. This is about the fact that two young women, Sindhu and grappler Sakshi Malik, have brought immense joy to a country that was drowning in gloom thanks to a poor Olympic outing in Rio.

Social media, of course, has been buzzing with some creative congratulatory messages for Sakshi and Sindhu. There is one in particular that stands out though. It says something like, ‘Beti padhao, beti khelao', which means encourage your daughter to get educated and take up sports. Perhaps it is time to pay heed to this. Because even in 2016, so many factors are holding girls back from participating in sports at any level.

The Pinkathon, a long distance running event was conceived and developed especially to encourage women to take up running. In some cities, women are stopped from practising sports after a certain age, they are told to give up their ‘tomboyish ways'. Some women are not allowed access to gyms as there are male trainers around. The fact that workouts stipulate a certain set of attire is another reason cited to keep women out of gyms. It's the same with swimming. At times, women are held back because sports practice may entail commuting to maidans or other facilities early in the day and they might get late while returning home.

There is always a tendency to control women because sports makes a person strong, physically and mentally. It is time to break those shackles. Let little girls, like little boys, have the freedom to go out and play. When you spot talent and that fire to excel at a sport in a little girl's eyes, give her that avenue to succeed. The Olympic podium may be hers to scale.

For all the girls who dream of hearing the national anthem on foreign shores and seeing the tricolour fly high, fuel their ambition, feed that fire, do not stamp it out.