Wrestlers’ Protest: Will they get Justice against Sexual Harassment?

Wrestlers’ Protest: Will they get Justice against Sexual Harassment?

KAKALI DAS

Welcome to the New India – on Veer Savarkar’s birthday, the new parliament was inaugurated with multiple prayers and wishes.

India’s new parliament comes with many advanced features, including – extra seating, earthquake protection and sound proofing – so that the members inside can’t be bothered by protests outside.

This was verified on the first day itself as women wrestlers were manhandled by police some distance away from the new parliament – FIR was registered against protesting wrestlers.

But, this ‘gentleman’ Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the president of Wrestling Federation of India – who has a POCSO FIR against him – was smiling inside the sound proof and ‘shock’ proof parliament. (slow claps)

Will our athletes get justice?

It’s been a month since our Olympic medal-winning wrestlers have been protesting. And media is hardly covering the news.

On the contrary, during this time, there have been efforts to try to discredit these wrestlers.

There are allegations that this protest is a conspiracy, a political conspiracy, whose real motive is something else.

Some said that if these wrestlers had to speak up, why didn’t they say it earlier! Some said that they don’t want give their trial, to qualify for the Olympics, so they are protesting.  

The demands of the protesting wrestlers have been very specific from the start. They have spoken against only one man, and have also demanded action against that one person. The Chief of the Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP MP from the Gonda constituency of Uttar Pradesh.

7 wrestlers have filed a sexual harassment complaint against him, and one of these is a minor. Because of this, for the first time in January 2023, the wrestlers started protesting at Jantar Mantar. But, then within three days, the government assured them that it would take action. So they stopped the protest. But 3 months later, they went back to protest at Jantar Mantar claiming that the government is delaying and not taking proper action.

The government had set up a committee to investigate the sexual harassment allegations against Brij Bhushan. But wrestlers say that the government has delayed in releasing the committee’s report. Secondly, they said that they don’t trust this committee. So, to sum it up, in April, they were back to protesting. This time, this protest got some publicity and the matter reached the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court issued a notice to the Delhi Police to file an FIR against Brij Bhushan. And after 6-7 days of this protest, the Delhi Police filed 2 FIRs against Brij Bhushan on 28^th April. The first FIR is based on the POCSO Act based on the allegations of the minor. The second FIR is for Outraging the Modesty and its relevant sections.

DETAILS ON THE FIRs

In this last month, all of the members of government who have spoken to the Press have stuck by their stand vouching for the investigation, insisting that the investigation be complete before any action is taken. But, a recent morning started with an exclusive story on the front page of The Indian Express, which then picked up by several other media houses.

There was a leak of two of the FIRs that were filed by the seven women who accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment. The details in this FIR are damning.

(Before I write any further, I do want to issue a trigger warning because the details in these FIRs are extremely triggering, especially for those who are triggered by such news.)

According to the FIRs, these instances took place between 2012 and 2022 – an entire decade in which the harassment in the intimidation allegedly continued. The FIRs, according to The Indian Express states that the WFI Chief Brij Bhushan allegedly groped women athletes on a regular basis, asked inappropriate questions, demanded sexual favours holding their careers to ransom, brushed his hands across various parts of their bodies without consent.

There were two instances of asking for sexual favours in return for professional assistance which is his designated job. 15 instances of sexual harassment including episodes of inappropriate touching, molestation, running his hands all over their chest, underneath their t-shirts on the pretence of checking their breaths, several instances of intimidation and stalking of young members of the team, and shared sense of fear and trauma.

He is also accused of creating problems for and denying professional opportunities to those who rejected his sexual advances. In one particular instance, one of the complainants has quoted him and has alleged that when she pushed him away, he said, “Zyada smart bann rahi hain kya… aage koi competition nahi khelna kya tune?” (Acting too smart? You don’t want to considered for tournaments in the future?)

These were all detailed in those FIRs. The Indian Express also says that the case was registered under the POCSO Act – the FIRs were filed by the minor’s father who had alleged that the young person was completely disturbed and cannot be at peace anymore. Sexual harassment by the accused continues to haunt her – there were details of the kind of sexual harassment that was, in the pages of those FIRs.

WRITER’S TAKE

I, however, would want to focus on one aspect in particular – the quote that I mentioned above is a blatant indication that every time the alleged harassment was rejected by the victims of the harassment, there were threats made to their careers, of withholding their professional opportunities for sexual favours.

Let us pause for a second here, and understand this system of imbalance between athletes and officials in the Indian system – and, specifically at the imbalance between these female wrestlers and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Firstly, this is what the system is like – there are selections whether or not an athlete makes it to the selection of any team, National or otherwise. It is entirely at the hands of those in power. Secondly, in tournaments and in the selection process of these tournaments, athletes are meant to fight rounds where they get knocked out, and we figure out who gets selected for what.

Now, these draws determine whether a complete newcomer goes up against a seeded player. That newcomer is likely to get knocked out in the first round, and will never make it further – hence will not get selected.

So, how a young athlete is drawn, who they compete with, and how far they wind up going in these tournaments lie very often in the hands of the officials. Grants, sponsorships and selections for camps are made by the officials as well, that gives them the power over the careers of these young athletes.

Remember, athletes in India, too, get government jobs with the police, railways – even these recommendations are made by the officials, and these officials are normally connected to the politics.

Especially, looking at women’s wrestling in India – a lot of the wrestlers in India come from the state of Haryana, a state that does not have a great track record when it comes to women empowerment or women equality. Yet, in Haryana, because of the very popular Phogat sisters, whose story was made even popular by the celluloid heroes on Bollywood, who have not spoken up in their favour as of now – many other young girls in Haryana have been taking up wrestling as a career choice.

In a state like Haryana, it is not easy for girls to go to training, to travel outside of their homes, cities or states, in order to compete, to stay in hotels, to go out of the country on their own – this is not something that would come easily on these families. But because wrestling gives them that empowerment, they are able to do it.

Several of these young women have been quoted during the protest, saying that they could not tell their families what was happening to them, because of the fear that their families would no longer allow them to compete, and ask them to stay home, get married. So, in many cases, they had to stay quiet.

Also, the Oversight Committee set up by the Sports Ministry to look into this matter, back in January, when the protest first began had precisely said that there is an absence of a duly constituted internal complaints committee where these athletes can complain. So, when you have someone very powerful harassing you and asking you for sexual favours, where do you go to?

Where would these athletes go to complain against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh? Who would listen to them given how powerful he is if there was no internal complaints committee where the complaint could be taken seriously and kept anonymously?

Also, let’s remember now, that this a very powerful heady concoction, if you add many dollops of politics in it. This individual in question is a powerful politician – which means that not only does he control the selection, the draws, the grants, the sponsorships and the jobs, he also has a considerable sway over the police, the other politicians, the akhadas (arena), and the funds that are coming in and out of the game. Because he happens to be one in power, and due to his ability to win elections, there is no action taken against him yet.

So, while this entire protest continues for over a month now, there are people on social media tagging the protesting wrestlers anti-national, claiming that they are politically motivated, when they took their medals to the Ganga saying that they would throw it in the river if their demand is not met.

But, consider the power imbalance between these young women wrestlers and a man who is ridiculously powerful and wields so much influence over the establishment, over the sport itself, and over the lives and careers of these young women. It would have taken a lot for them to come forward and to actually voice their opinion, and yet, somehow, in spite of how clear the rules are about what needs to be done when cases like these are filed – specifically, the POCSO case which involves the minor – justice seems nowhere to be found.

The accused must be removed from positions of power immediately, so that he doesn’t intimidate the witnesses and the victim, and should not be allowed to tamper with any evidence. The accused MUST be arrested immediately in this case.

[Images from different sources]

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