Its team hadn’t won any medals yet. “This is the first time that a medal has come for women”.
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Cash rewards and incentives amounting to at least Rs 3.5 crore awaits woman wrestler Sakshi Malik who clinched a historic bronze medal for India at the Rio Olympics.
Until the news broke, not many people had heard of Malik. These three names will be etched in the memory of sports enthusiasts for their performances in what has been a disappointing outing for India at the Rio Olympics. Malik’s own village, Mokhra Khas, has just 822 women for every 1,000 men, the result of India’s long-running preference for sons. The fact is the top-end of the medal tally figures mostly those who spend better on sports, including the likes of Russian Federation and China.
Of course, that isn’t the case.
Malik was born in the northern state of Haryana, which has given India some of its top male wrestlers, including 2012 London Olympics winners Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, who is also competing in Rio.
Sakshi Malik had earlier won silver medal at Commonwealth Games, Glasgow in 2014, bronze medal at Asian Wrestling Championships, Doha in 2015, among others. “She has done the country and us proud”, a visibly happy Sudesh Malik said.
A few diehards were awake and watching as it happened. She hit back with a similar move to reduce the deficit to just one point. So much so that she’s been recommended for the country’s highest sporting honour – the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. There are stories of bonhomie between athletes of countries one would never imagine could even stand together in the same frame forget clicking selfies.
Paradoxically, a state infamous for its low sex ratio, kangaroo courts, women in veils and stark patriarchy is producing a large number of women athletes: 12 of the 20-strong contingent from Haryana to Rio are women. Wrestling and boxing, popular sports in Haryana, are dominated by men.
However, In the second period, the Indian failed to take advantage of the 30 seconds she got and handed Cherdivara another point. Sakshi Malik won the bronze medal for India in the 58kg freestyle wrestling by beating Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgystan with the score of 8-5.
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Eighteen months ago, India’s prime minister launched a campaign to up the skewed sex ratio in India with the slogan: beti bachao, beti padhao – raise a girl, educate a girl. The society is more concerned about what the women wear, setting out firmans of dressing code, than spare a thought on why mother-to-be should go undernourished, risking also the the life of the child she is carrying.
