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We Betray Our Women, Yet They Make Us Proud
The mixed bag of feelings from an Indian.
Let me start with the good news first. India now has two medals at the Olympics at the time of writing this — both individual medals, both by women. A silver medal in weightlifting, and a bronze in badminton.
You must be thinking, is two medals a reason to celebrate for a nation that comprises more than 17% of the world’s population? Well, that’s the sorry state of sports in the country. Our “record” medals tally was 6 medals in 2012. But, let’s not digress. Both the medals this year have come from women.
The next big hope is from the women’s hockey team. Hockey is our national sport, and yet this is only the 2nd time in the last 40+ years that India’s women have qualified for the Olympics. They just upset a much higher-ranked Australia in the quarterfinals.
The only gold medal hopeful that’s remaining is a wrestler — also a woman — a woman called Vinesh Phogat, whose sisters and cousins have been celebrated wrestlers for the country, and have had a global blockbuster movie based on them — Dangal. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t.
That’s all great news then, isn’t it? Women are leading the nation and there’s no better news. Well, that’s only the shiny side of the story. For the darker…
