Sport is A Powerful Platform for Empowering Women, says Kanthi D Suresh

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 2 March 2022

The theme for this year's International Women's Day (March 8) is "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow," which recognises the contributions of women and girls.

One of the most effective tools for promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls is through sports. Women have been showing their sports credentials in India since the turn of the century.

While there were 21 women in the 2000 Summer Olympics, 25 in 2004, 25 in 2008, and 23 in 2012, the number of women at the 2016 Summer Olympics more than quadrupled to 54. Out of the 128 athletes at the Tokyo Games, 57 were female.

But, in a country with 669 million women, is it enough?

Women's sports have received a lot of attention in the Middle Eastern countries.

Qatar's National Vision 2030 includes a goal to promote women's engagement in sports and physical activity. Sania Has Returned to The Top 50 Saudi Arabia's female engagement in sports has increased by 150 percent since the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Vision 2030 on April 25, 2016.

Arab women have made significant progress in a variety of sports that were formerly dominated by men, such as football. A women's football league was also established in the Kingdom.

Kanthi D Suresh, the first Indian woman to run a sports channel, remarked, "Football and cricket are the two biggest Sports in the world with the largest fan base, and if one wants to see real empowerment of women in sports, cricket and football is where it should be predominantly seen,"

In India, the discussion about women's cricket generally revolves around the systems in place. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the richest cricket governing organisation in the world, and it has given its associations considerable influence. As a result, when it comes to investing in the women's game, money isn't always a problem.

As the globe prepares to observe International Women's Day on March 8, Kanthi stated, "A Global Women's T20 League on the lines of an IPL, hosted in a country that has its primary focus on woman sports is the need of the hour.”