Mumbai: Wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s outstanding performance at the Paris Olympics has marked both the pinnacle and the heartbreak of India’s sports season. The Indian contingent secured six silver and bronze medals, with Phogat poised to add to that tally after reaching the finals in the under-50 kg freestyle wrestling category. However, her hopes for a medal were dashed by a mere 100 grams over the weight limit during the weigh-in before the final match. Phogat’s appeal was heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on August 9, with the results still pending.
For Phogat, a three-time Olympian, this journey has been particularly gruelling, especially over the past two years. For the past two years, Phogat along with two other Olympians – Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia – were at the forefront of demanding action against the former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Singh, accused of sexually harassing multiple women athletes, threatening them when they rejected his advances and also scuttling their prospects in the wrestling game.
It was not just the WFI and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) that predictably overlooked their demands for a long time, these world-class athletes were also let down by the international community.
A comprehensive report by the Sport & Rights Alliance – a global coalition of leading NGOs and trade unions advocating for human rights and anti-corruption in sports – highlighted the systemic failure. When the WFI and the IOA failed in its duty to protect multiple women athletes from an unsafe environment and persistent sexual harassment by the federation’s former chief, the report notes that it became “essential” for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to conduct a thorough, independent, and trauma-informed investigation into Singh’s abuse. Yet, the IOC fell short.
The report, compiled after interviewing several survivors of sexual harassment, in March this year, including Malik, who endured harassment for over a decade, gives a detailed account and nature of the harassment. Payoshni Mitra, the executive director of Humans of Sport, has authored the 28-page report that was published in July this year.
Phogat, in her interview says, “Bajrang, Sakshi and I are accomplished players, Olympic-level players, and even then, we’ve had to struggle so much for anyone to hear our story. Imagine how difficult it must be for a young woman in sports to speak up. Their careers can get destroyed.”
Phogat’s statement is further substantiated by the ordeal that many women wrestlers, as young as 19 and 20, have narrated in the report. The survivors have given accounts of Singh’s predatory behaviour which began 10 years ago, right after he took charge of the WFI.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh advertising his Ayodhya maharally. Photo: Twitter/@b_bhushansharan May 26, 2023.
One athlete, recalling her experience from 10 years ago, when she was merely 20, says that she had only recently won a medal at a wrestling competition outside of India and Singh had summoned her to his room. Thinking that Singh wanted to congratulate her in person, the athlete says, she went. There, Singh “called me towards the bed where he was sitting, and then all of a sudden he hugged me forcefully without my consent.” Singh had allegedly told her it was the gesture of a “father figure.” The harassment further continued as Singh continued to call her mother, in order to talk to the 20-year-old.
That same year, Singh had allegedly offered to buy “nutritional supplements” for the athlete in exchange for “sexual favours.” This sextortion caused lasting trauma and poor performance in her sport, the survivor narrates in the report.
Another young athlete shares her experience of having been inappropriately touched by Singh at one medal ceremony and discomforted by the experience, the young athlete had moved away. Years later, the athlete says, she was punished for her refusal to give into Singh’s sexual advancement, by being dropped from the selection list of the national championship competition. When the survivor sought answers for the injustice meted out to her, Singh alleged replied: “I warned you that I would not let you play any competition.” “At [a]…tender age…when I was at the very initial stage of my wrestling profession…I was being pulled back by such tactics,” she testifies.
Some young athletes also shared disturbing accounts of being groped and inappropriately touched by Singh all in the name of “checking their breathing pattern” while exercising. Most victims also shared that even if Singh was the one who had sexually harassed them, it became possible because other staff members including some coaches, who would coerce them into giving into Singh’s demands.
One senior wrestling coach has told the Sport & Rights Alliance, “When I heard that the women wrestlers were protesting, I was reminded of what I had heard several years back. I wasn’t able to take any action or support them to speak up. I was fearful that [Singh] would cause harm to me and my family.”
The fear that this senior wrestling coach speaks of was felt by almost all in the wrestling community. Malik, in her interview, says, “I had told one of my seniors and also my parents when I was harassed by him early in my career. My parents felt speaking up will end my career and advised me against complaining. I wish I knew about any independent body where one could complain at the time when this happened. It is so important to make sure that athletes feel safe to report harassment.”
Phogat says that when they began protesting in 2022, there were close to 20 women who had come forward with their experiences. But they were coerced into shutting up. Along with the WFI, the state authorities too have been hostile towards the protesting athletes, who faced police brutalities on the streets of Delhi while seeking justice. Only after two years of relentless demand for justice, did the court finally set Singh on trial.
In response to the protest, the government on January 23, 2023, appointed a committee led by M.C. Mary Kom, a Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Awardee and Olympic bronze medal winner, to investigate multiple allegations including sexual misconduct, harassment, intimidation, and other administrative lapses that the athletes had flagged.
This committee’s hearing too was allegedly not conducted keeping the survivors’ wellbeing in mind. In all eight complainants – all female wrestlers – had testified before the committee. They had raised concerns about confidentiality and safety, yet when the women stepped out of the committee’s hearing, Singh’s supporters and media persons with cameras had surrounded the space. The survivor’s identity was revealed and it led to further intimidation.
In interviews, the survivors have described the “sceptical” approach of the committee towards the allegations against Singh. For example, athletes told the Sport & Rights Alliance that the committee wanted to see video and audio “proof” of Singh’s abuse, not just testimony. Sangeeta Phogat, who was one among the wrestlers who testified, said “the committees were created with people who themselves did not know what sexual harassment is.”
Vinesh Phogat poignantly sums up the extent to which sexual harassment is normalised in the country. In her interview to researcher Mitra, Phogat says: “Indian society normalises abuse and harassment. They will only take it seriously when the assault is gruesome. But it is like how we fight a wrestling bout. Whether we lose by one point or by ten, we lose. Whether the assault is big or small, it is an assault. An act against our will.”
The research report, along with seeking accountability from the Indian government and action against Singh, also makes recommendations to the National Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport, the United World Wrestling (UWW) and the IOC. To the national ministry, the report recommends, “An expansive, trauma-informed investigation of the WFI, to include any abuse committed by federation officials, employees, coaches, trainers, and other individuals that regularly interact with wrestlers”.
The Sport & Rights Alliance has also recommended that the UWW, along with the IOC, should fully investigate the WFI and make the findings public and that the IOC should overhaul the existing abuse hotline for Olympic athletes “to establish an effective resource where survivors of abuse can safely report any physical, sexual, or emotional abuse”.
