INDIAN FEMALE WRESTLERS AND OTHER ATHLETES
Wrestlers, led by Olympic bronze medal winners Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, first took to the streets of New Delhi in protest on January 18. They accused Singh and several coaches of the sport’s governing body of sexually harassing female athletes.
Commonwealth Games women’s gold winner Vinesh Phogat said coaches and the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) have sexually harassed multiple women.
“Women wrestlers have been sexually harassed at national camps by coaches and also the WFI president,” the 28-year-old athlete said in January.
“I know at least 10 to 20 girls in the national camp who have come and told me their stories,” she told reporters.
Following government assurance that an oversight committee would look into the allegations, the wrestlers called off the initial protests on January 20. The sports also ministry stripped the WFI top brass of all administrative powers.
But Malik, who was India’s first female wrestler to win an Olympic medal, said withdrawing the January protest was a “mistake.”
“The report by the oversight committee was not made public and we have reasons to believe the culprits got a clean chit,” said Malik, who won the women’s 58kg freestyle bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The demonstrations resumed last month following what the protesters say was government inaction. In a letter to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief, PT Usha, the wrestlers wrote that Phogat was “mentally harassed and tortured” by Singh after she missed out on an Olympic medal in Tokyo in 2021, which led her to almost contemplate suicide.
The letter also alleged financial misappropriation on the part of the WFI with Singh at its helm.
