Skip to main content

Terminate sexual predators, suspension not enough: Women's groups tell Sports Ministry

Counterview Desk 
Taking strong exception to the Union Ministry of Sports merely suspending the new executive committee of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) led by Sanjay Singh, and not terminating it in the wake of strong protest by wrestlers for announcing the hosting of nationals in the “fiefdom” of Uttar Pradesh BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, several women’s rights organisations have said the “sexual predators” should be actually terminated.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is outgoing WFI president, has been in the eye of storm of sexual harassment of female wresters. The new executive committee, now “suspended”, was led by Sanjay Singh, the BJP MP’s business partner.
Stating that the Ministry’s decision is too small and too late, in a signed statement, they said, the announcement came after India’s first Olympic medal winner in women’s wrestling Sakshi Mallik declared her formal withdrawal from the sport, followed by Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia returning the Padmashri award”, Vinesh Phogat returning the Khel Ratna, and Deaflympics gold medallist Virendra Singh Yadava calling upon all sportspersons to return their honours.
The statement demanded, “MPs like Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who are openly promoting a culture of physical and sexual violence within sports are barred from contesting elections of sports bodies and the BJP ensure that he is not a candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections."

Text:

We, the undersigned women, human rights, and other social groups, have been pained once again by the recent events of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). We are happy that the Sports Ministry suspended the newly elected panel, that was led by Sanjay Singh, business partner and loyalist of the outgoing WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh (MP), whose intention was to wield full control of the WFI on all matters. This was amply demonstrated when slogans were raised at Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s official MP residence in Delhi soon after ‘his’ victory. In a blatant display of his raw power, posters of him saying “dab daba to hai, dab daba toh rahega" (We dominate, our domination will prevail) were put up. The new president, further, did away with due-diligence and unilaterally announced without consulting the executive committee of WFI, the hosting of the nationals of under 20s and under 15s in Nandini Nagar, Gonda, in the fiefdom of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in UP.
On December, 24, 2023, the Sports Ministry announced that they were suspending (not terminating) the new committee till further notice, for not having followed due diligence and for having taken hasty decisions. However, adequate notice was not given to the participating wrestlers for the nationals. Here, as well, due process and the rules that governs the WFI were not followed.
This initiative of the sports ministry in effect, is too little, and has come too late. It is more than a year after our wrestlers have waged a herculean struggle on the streets for justice against sexual violence and putting the legal requirement of an Internal Complaints Committee in place. This was an opportune moment for them to give a very clear message while suspending the panel to the wrestling and the larger sports community that there is zero tolerance for sexual violence and that a panel which promotes this culture had no space in the sports world of India. Since suspension can be revoked and the same team would return, termination was the action required against the new panel, reassuring the players that the Ministry’s commitment towards women’s dignity was paramount.
This announcement came after India’s first Olympic medal winner in women’s wrestling, Sakshi Mallik, declared her formal withdrawal from the sport in a press conference on 21st December, 2023. Her grounds for withdrawal were based on no guarantee of a safe and secure place for women wrestlers, that was free from sexual harassment. For her, continuing in the wrestling sport arena, would mean humiliation, and make it impossible to play the game in an intimidating environment.
Sakshi’s gesture was followed by Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia, returning the Padmashri award, which he said was now a suffocating symbol as the powers that be, who had conferred this honour were really not interested in ensuring justice. Similarly, Deaflympics gold medallist Virendra Singh Yadava, gave a call that all sportspersons must return their honours, if justice must be done to the sportswomen in wrestling and other sports. It was also a call against the monopoly that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was asserting over the sport. And more recently Vinesh Phogat too has returned the Khel Ratna, saying that such honours have become meaningless and has urged the PM to break his silence against the continued indignity that they as sports women are being subjected to by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and his loyalists.
We would further like to state that the Ministry of Sports has been selective in its actions. While it has acted against the WFI for lack of due diligence in decision making, not a single federation has been suspended thus far for not implementing the POSH law.
We are celebrating ten years of the implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, popularly known as the POSH law, currently. While celebrations are underway all over the country, our champions who brought laurels for the country like Sakshi, Vinesh, Sangeeta and other women wrestlers, have not been assured of this minimum protection, at their ‘workplace’. There has been no strong message that sexual predators will have no space at the helm of affairs and strong action will be taken against such sportsmen and authorities.
Is not the Sports Ministry cognisant that more than 50 % of the national sport bodies do not have internal complaint committees?
Despite 27 years, since the historic Vishakha guidelines were issued by the Supreme Court, that gave the framework on POSH, institutional structures are still denying the existence of sexual harassment in workplaces and perpetrators of violence are roaming free, and are in privileged positions. The Vishakha judgement placed sexual harassment at the workplace in the realm of “human rights abuse”. The 2013 law further clearly defined the workplace, the employer, and employee, widely, including in the workplace any sports complex or stadia, including residential spaces in them and the term employers includes those responsible for supervision, management, just as employees includes trainees and probationers.
Is not the Sports Ministry cognisant that more than 50 % of the national sport bodies do not have internal complaint committees? According to an RTI of the sports ministry, in the decade from 2010 to 2020, only 45 sports women had filed complaints of sexual harassment. To a question in the Rajya Sabha on July 19th 2023, the Sports Minister stated that in the last three years only four aggrieved sportswomen of over forty National sports federation registered complaints, although all sports federation are duty bound to implement the POSH law. Despite detailed instructions by the ministry of youth and sports affairs dated 12.08.2010 and the POSH law coming into force from December 2013, till date, as the numbers demonstrate - internal complaint committee platforms for sportswomen, in either the wrestling federation of India or any dozens of sports bodies, remain non-existent at the national and state levels.
We would like to ask the Sports Ministry and all federations, whether the Supreme Court of India order of October 2023, (Initiatives for Inclusive Foundation Vs UOI), that emphasised Internal Complaints Committee as most crucial for addressing and reporting instances of sexual harassment in the workplace is being implemented. The SCI also issued a comprehensive set of directions to all Governments for the compliance of the POSH law, including suggesting amendment to the rules for better and uniform implementation.
Will the present Union Government and sports ministry prioritise the promotion of a safe and inclusive environment for women in sports? We demand that:
  • MPs like Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who are openly promoting a culture of physical and sexual violence within sports are barred from contesting elections of sports bodies and the BJP ensure that he is not a candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
  • The suspension of the newly elected WFI body be converted to termination of the body, and fresh elections be organised, as the present suspension will mean the return of Brij Bhushan Sharan at the helm, once it is revoked within a time frame.
  • Commitment to combat sexual harassment in sports and other workplaces be undertaken without any delay, with an overall revamp of these bodies. Safety and transparency should be the core on which these bodies are built.
  • Dignity be restored to our struggling champions Sakshi, Vinesh, Sangeeta and others, including Bajrang Punia, who are still at the peak of their career, and they be encouraged to return back to the arena.
  • There be a total revamp in all sports federations by legislation, that 33 percent of all posts be reserved for women and the voter collegium must include outstanding sports persons
---
Click here for signatories

Comments

Post a Comment

TRENDING

Stronger India–Russia partnership highlights a missed energy breakthrough

By N.S. Venkataraman*  The recent visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India was widely publicized across several countries and has attracted significant global attention. The warmth with which Mr. Putin was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was particularly noted, prompting policy planners worldwide to examine the implications of this cordial relationship for the global economy and political climate. India–Russia relations have stood on a strong foundation for decades and have consistently withstood geopolitical shifts. This is in marked contrast to India’s ties with the United States, which have experienced fluctuations under different U.S. administrations.
Post a Comment
»

From natural farming to fair prices: Young entrepreneurs show a new path

By Bharat Dogra   There have been frequent debates on agro-business companies not showing adequate concern for the livelihoods of small farmers. Farmers’ unions have often protested—generally with good reason—that while they do not receive fair returns despite high risks and hard work, corporate interests that merely process the crops produced by farmers earn disproportionately high profits. Hence, there is a growing demand for alternative models of agro-business development that demonstrate genuine commitment to protecting farmer livelihoods.
Post a Comment
»

The Vande Mataram debate and the politics of manufactured controversy

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  The recent Vande Mataram debate in Parliament was never meant to foster genuine dialogue. Each political party spoke past the other, addressing its own constituency, ensuring that clips went viral rather than contributing to meaningful deliberation. The objective was clear: to construct a Hindutva narrative ahead of the Bengal elections. Predictably, the Lok Sabha will likely expunge the opposition’s “controversial” remarks while retaining blatant inaccuracies voiced by ministers and ruling-party members. The BJP has mastered the art of inserting distortions into parliamentary records to provide them with a veneer of historical legitimacy.
Post a Comment
»

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.
Post a Comment
»

Thota Sitaramaiah: An internal pillar of an underground organisation

By Harsh Thakor*  Thota Sitaramaiah was regarded within his circles as an example of the many individuals whose work in various underground movements remained largely unknown to the wider public. While some leaders become visible through organisational roles or media attention, many others contribute quietly, without public recognition. Sitaramaiah was considered one such figure. He passed away on December 8, 2025, at the age of 65.
Post a Comment
»

The cost of being Indian: How inequality and market logic redefine rights

By Vikas Gupta   We, the people of India, are engaged in a daily tryst—read: struggle—for basic human rights. For the seemingly well-to-do, the wish list includes constant water supply, clean air, safe roads, punctual public transportation, and crime-free neighbourhoods. For those further down the ladder, the struggle is starker: food that fills the stomach, water that doesn’t sicken, medicines that don’t kill, houses that don’t flood, habitats at safe distances from polluted streams or garbage piles, and exploitation-free environments in the public institutions they are compelled to navigate.
Post a Comment
»

Epic war against caste system is constitutional responsibility of elected government

Edited by well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan, the book, “Bhed-Bharat: An Account of Injustice and Atrocities on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-18)” (available in English and Gujarati*) is a selection of news articles on Dalits and Adivasis (2014-2018) published by Dalit Shakti Prakashan, Ahmedabad. Preface to the book, in which Macwan seeks to answer key questions on why the book is needed today: *** The thought of compiling a book on atrocities on Dalits and thus present an overall Indian picture had occurred to me a long time ago. Absence of such a comprehensive picture is a major reason for a weak social and political consciousness among Dalits as well as non-Dalits. But gradually the idea took a different form. I found that lay readers don’t understand numbers and don’t like to read well-researched articles. The best way to reach out to them was storytelling. As I started writing in Gujarati and sharing the idea of the book with my friends, it occurred to me that while...
Post a Comment
»

New RTI draft rules inspired by citizen-unfriendly, overtly bureaucratic approach

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Department of Personnel and Training , Government of India has invited comments on a new set of Draft Rules (available in English only) to implement The Right to Information Act, 2005 . The RTI Rules were last amended in 2012 after a long period of consultation with various stakeholders. The Government’s move to put the draft RTI Rules out for people’s comments and suggestions for change is a welcome continuation of the tradition of public consultation. Positive aspects of the Draft RTI Rules While 60-65% of the Draft RTI Rules repeat the content of the 2012 RTI Rules, some new aspects deserve appreciation as they clarify the manner of implementation of key provisions of the RTI Act. These are: Provisions for dealing with non-compliance of the orders and directives of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by public authorities- this was missing in the 2012 RTI Rules. Non-compliance is increasingly becoming a major problem- two of my non-compliance cases are...
Post a Comment
»

Proposals for Babri Masjid, Ram Temple spark fears of polarisation before West Bengal polls

By A Representative   A political debate has emerged in West Bengal following recent announcements about plans for new religious structures in Murshidabad district, including a proposed mosque to be named Babri Masjid and a separate announcement by a BJP leader regarding the construction of a Ram temple in another location within Behrampur.
Post a Comment
»