日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

Grappling with gender bias, Geeta heads to London

Updated: 2012-05-22 16:44:32

(Agencies)

  Comments() Print Mail Large Medium  Small 分享按鈕 0

Grappling with gender bias, Geeta heads to London

Indian wrestler Geeta Phogat (in blue) practices with a colleague as her coach Monika Choudhary (R) watches inside the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala in the northern Indian state of Punjab, May 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

PATIALA - As Geeta Phogat 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."

Grappling with gender bias, Geeta heads to London

Indian wrestler Geeta Phogat jogs during a practice session outside the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala in the northern Indian state of Punjab May 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

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 kilometers away can direct you to it.

Tanned and lithe, Geeta stood with her legs apart and her muscular arms folded across her chest, as she spoke to Reuters at her gym. It was a confident posture, unlike that of many of the women from her village who were too shy to speak to journalists.

Her home state of Haryana is notorious for its gender bias and sex-selective abortion. A girl child is considered so undesirable, and they are so frequently aborted, that a 2011 census found there were only 877 women for every 1,000 men. The national sex ratio is 940.

Brought up as boys

Girls are often viewed as a financial burden because of the marriage dowry given by the bride's family to the groom - a social custom widely practised despite being illegal in India.

"In my village earlier, when families found they were going to have a girl child, they used to get an abortion," says Geeta's younger sister, Ritu, who is also a wrestler.

Grappling with gender bias, Geeta heads to London

Indian wrestler Geeta Phogat lifts a weight as she exercises during a practice session inside the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala in the northern Indian state of Punjab May 5, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

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.

Hardly any of Geeta's childhood friends went to college or have a job. She had an unconventional upbringing as her father decided to coach her in kushti, traditional Indian wrestling, which is usually fought on a mud surface.

"If I was not a wrestler, or if my father was not a good coach, I would have been married by now," she says.

Instead, Geeta and her sisters were brought up as boys with her father disapproving of long hair or feminine clothes.

"We used to wear a track suit and T-shirt while training," says Geeta, who has grown her hair longer now and has a ponytail. "But that did not go down well with the villagers, because women are usually supposed to wear salwar kameez (a long shirt paired with loose pyjamas)."

Geeta now trains in a fully equipped, air-conditioned gym at Asia's largest sports institute, which includes a palace built by the erstwhile Maharaja of Patiala.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

Medal Count

 
1 46 29 29
2 38 27 22
3 29 17 19
4 24 25 33
5 13 8 7
6 11 19 14

Watch the Future of Olympic Sports

SUPERBODIES 2012:
Soccer
Click for HD

Most Viewed

Gold medal moments

Age not a problem for Olympic dreams

Olympic moments to remember

Beijing Olympics just keeps on giving

Against the Olympic spirit

Olympic fashion tips

Taking success overseas

more

Competition Schedule

...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产成人精品一区二区三在线观看 | 色3344| 人人射人人爱 | 欧美精品久久久久久久久老牛影院 | 国产欧美日韩免费 | 日韩国产欧美一区二区三区 | 欧美成人生活片 | 成人欧美日韩视频一区 | 好骚综合在线 | 国产va免费精品观看精品 | 永久免费在线播放 | 免费播放春色aⅴ视频 | 密室逃脱第一季免费观看完整在线 | 高清不卡一区二区 | 久久久伊人色综合A片无码 国产精品区一区二区三 | 久久精品视频5 | 国产区免费 | 成人性视频免费网站 | 国产秋霞| 小明看看在线视频 | 免费人成年短视频在线观看免费网站 | 精品国产福利久久久 | 日韩视频一区二区三区 | 国产精品久久久久久久久久久久 | 成人av一区| 天堂资源在线 | 亚洲欧美视频一区 | 波多野结衣手机在线播放 | 污污成人一区二区三区四区 | 色综合天天综合网国产成人 | 黄片毛片在线观看 | 亚洲欧美小视频 | 亚洲国产视频在线观看 | 亚洲成人一区 | 91免费大片| 亚久久| 午夜精品老牛av一区二区三区 | 国产精品爽爽va在线观看网站 | 国产一级片 | 青青国产在线视频 | 夜干夜干2017最新网站 |