Geeta grapples with gender bias as London beckons

BALALI: As Geeta Phogat (pic) completes her sprint at a sprawling sports campus in Punjab state, one of her coaches nods approvingly at her stopwatch, another rushes to check her pulse, and a third ushers her toward the gym for a bout of wrestling.

Such attention and encouragement is routine for a top athlete, but it is unusual for women from Geeta’s village in the northern Indian state of Haryana.

It is rare for a girl to have a life outside her home.

“In my village, girls have limited opportunities,” says 23-year-old Geeta, the first female Indian wrestler to qualify for the Olympics.

“If they get admission in a college, only a few households would allow them to go for further studies.”

When Geeta and her wrestler-sisters began training, they were ridiculed by the community.

“They said nobody will marry us because we would have disfigured ears,” says Geeta, pointing to her cauliflower ears, a common condition among wrestlers in which the outer ear is swollen.

Twelve years later Geeta is a local celebrity. Ask for the house where Geeta lives and people several kilometres away can direct you to it.

Her home state of Haryana is notorious for its gender bias and sex-selective abortion. Agirl child is considered so undesirable, and they are so frequently aborted.

Girls are often viewed as a financial burden because of the marriage dowry given by the bride’s family to the groom.

An adolescent girl in Haryana is typically expected to do household chores and is often married by the age of 15, says Anjali Makhija, who works for the Institute of Rural Research and Development.

Most women are expected to do chores such as bathing livestock, milking cows or working in the fields. Education is not a priority.

Geeta says she is both excited and nervous about the Olympics in London, a city she has never seen before. But even if she does not win gold, her success has inspired girls in and around her village.

“Those who used to ask my father to be ashamed of himself for training us in wrestling now say they wish they have daughters like me,” says Geeta, who will be competing in the 55kg category at the London Games this year.

Since the success of the Phogat sisters in international tournaments, their father has started training other girls from the village in the family wrestling hall – which finally has a mat. — Reuters