ROHTAK: Of the several budding wrestlers who adore 2016 Rio Olympic medallist Sakshee Malikkh as their role model and share the anguish of protesting women wrestlers over sexual harassment in sports, not even a single of them is ready to utter any word about Wrestling Federation of India’s new office-bearers.
TOI visited three major akharas where women wrestlers practise for state- and national-level competitions, to talk to them about allegation levelled by wrestlers Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat, and Bajrang Punia.At the Chhotu Ram stadium wrestling hall, where Malikkh practised before her triumph at the Rio Olympics, about 50 girls who come in morning and evening shifts for training requested the reporter not to interact with them. On being asked about the reason, they said if the former WFI president Brij Bushan Saran Singh and his men were to learn that they were in touch with any mediaperson, they would be targeted and may face consequences during the tournament.
Similarly, at Mahadev wrestling academy where scores of young and budding women wrestlers practise twice a day, they said they extended their full support during the Jantar Mantar protest but had to pay a heavy price.
“We will not utter even a single word about the new WFI body. We have a lot to say, but we will keep it buried deep in our hearts forever. When famed women wrestlers Sakshee, Vinesh, Sangeeta Phogat’s voices could not move an inch, expecting a revolution from our end is impossible,” said a wrestler.
At Satyawan Kadian akhara on the outskirts, which is owned by the in-laws of Sakshee Malikkh, the women players said their families had pinned a lot of hope on them for the upcoming tournaments. “If we speak, we will be targeted and may have to pay a price,” said a state-level women wrestler here. One of the parents of a women wrestler said that no women wrestler is ready to speak because they fear that their career would end even before taking off.
“The defeat of women wrestlers has caused mental trauma to them,” he said. Another parent said they were tight-lipped because they were terrified of the consequences but they all wanted a women president in the WFI, so that they could confide their feelings about serious issues such as harassment.
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