Women And Sports In India: A Social Perspective

Abstract

The status of women in modern India is such that they have left the secured domain of their home and is fully prepared in the battle field of life with their enthusiasm, talent and quench for their status. They have proven themselves time to time that they can work equally with men. But in our country they are yet to get their dues. Our country’s sex ratio shows that our generation is still discriminatory against women’s to make their place in any field be it work sector or sports. An Indian woman in day to day life faces many problems as compared to European women. These problems have become the part and parcel of Indian women and some of them have accepted as their fate. But times are changing slowly and steadily and the Indian women are also getting name and fame in the top list of world scholars, doctors, teachers and sports champions. We all know that sports are universal in nature. But in earlier days, mostly men actively participated in sports events while women faced many constraints such as physiological, psychological, social, family, culture, religion and so on. But later on they were able to overcome these constraints and actively participated in all the sports. The present paper deals with the history of the participation of women in sports from Rig Veda, early Hindu period, medieval period, British period, after independence to the present era. The prime focus of this paper is to highlight the issues, challenges, constraints and remedies faced by the Indian women sportsperson. We have incorporated various achievements by the Indian women sportsperson in the present era. This will encourage and boost the morale’s of the future generation girls and change the whole perspective and enable them to be the torch bearers of women upliftment in India.