Olympian Nisha Millet recalled an incident during the 1999 National Games in Manipur when an Indian Olympic Association (IOA) official literally asked her to use his bedroom.
Two days after 31 hockey players accused national coach MK Kaushik of sexually harassing them, Olympian Nisha Millet recalled an incident during the 1999 National Games in Manipur when an Indian Olympic Association (IOA) official literally asked her to use his bedroom.
“I was sharing a room with a woman journalist at a hotel when the IOA official whose name I can’t recall, I think he was an observer, came up to me and said: ‘Why don’t you take my room keys? It is much bigger and even has a bigger TV’. I was much younger then but I was bold enough to tell him away,” she said.
“Speaking against the coach or an official can literally put an end to a sportswoman’s career. There were several instances where national coach KV Sharma used to threaten us that we would never swim again if we complained to the press against him. Thankfully, we were never sexually harassed, but if we raised our voice against something unfair, officials would ensure our career was over. I am not surprised why these hockey girls kept quiet for so long,” Millet said.
The hockey sex scandal was only the tip of the iceberg, said some female stars from Bangalore, adding that even a governing body to look into such issues would be of little help. “Federations and associations are not accountable and to expect them to have a governing body will not help. Only a women’s commission or an external body can bring justice to victims,” said former international athlete Ashwini Nachappa.
“An FIR needs to be lodged against coach MK Kaushik because the committee probing this issue consists of former players and in all possibility, the guilty will never be punished. An external body will have to look into the matter and bring out the facts. Hockey India is headed by a woman who has let such things happen under her nose. It is just not acceptable,” said Nachappa.
Another former international athlete Reeth Abraham felt that it took tremendous courage for a woman to come out in the open and speak about being sexually harassed. “Such incidents have been happening since the 1980s and mostly with girls in team sports. It takes a lot of courage for a girl to openly speak of such incidents. I only wish the girls get bolder and stand up for themselves,” she said.
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