Did Vinesh become a victim of male ego?

Vandita Mishra October 14,2024

Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat was declared ‘disqualified’ before the final match (50 kg category, freestyle) of Paris Olympics. She was found to be 100 grams over her weight category. It is impossible for a player to recover from this shock. Vinesh was performing brilliantly, winning continuously and making her way to the final. Even before the final match, a silver medal was assured for her. The rhythm Vinesh was in, even a novice could have said that she would bring the gold medal for India. But whether I call it the cruelty of wrestling rules or the great weakness of Indian management, Vinesh had to go through the most difficult phase of her life. Along with the disappointment from the game, Vinesh now also has to deal with those who consider her an opponent of Narendra Modi. Such people are seeing a huge victory for BJP and Modi in Vinesh’s defeat. Vinesh had accused former BJP MP and then Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual exploitation, which he still stands by. To investigate these allegations, Vinesh along with her fellow wrestlers sat on a dharna at Jantar Mantar to get justice, where the Delhi Police working under the Modi government misbehaved with them.

After the news of Vinesh’s weight disqualification in the Paris Olympics, a post is viral on social media in which a person named Vishal Varsney, who is claiming himself to be a BJP worker, writes in the post “She had accused of sexual harassment, if she had removed 2/4 clothes, her weight would have decreased by 200 grams”. Many sensible people did not like this post, people have also opposed this person, but this is not the only post written on Vinesh in social media. This kind of cowardice towards women is not just a part of Indian society, but it is a global spread.

In the European Union, 1 in 10 girls under the age of 15 has been a victim of sexual abuse on social media. In Arab countries, 60% of girls are facing sexual abuse on social media. The number of cyber crimes against women in India, which was around 9,000 in 2014, has increased to around 53,000 per year in 2021. It is clear that cyber crimes against women have increased at a very fast pace in the last ten years. Probably the only reason behind such crimes is the lack of action against people like Vishal Varshney. It should not be forgotten that only a few years have passed when incidents like ‘online bid’ (Bulli Bai) of Muslim women journalists of the country were happening. People were doing the work of buying and selling women by creating websites, that too with great pride and there was no one to stop them, rather it was spreading loudly, its screenshots were being taken and shared, its screen recording was being done and it was being spread further.

It is true that women are not giving up, but the space for them is constantly shrinking. According to a report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (2016), 82 percent of women MPs reported that they had experienced some form of psychological violence during their tenure. This included comments of a sexual or derogatory sexual nature, sexual gestures and threats. These women MPs reported social media as the main medium of this type of violence. 44% of women MPs reported that they or their family received threats of death, rape, assault or kidnapping. 65% of women MPs were victims of gender-discriminatory comments by male MPs. If we want to understand this in India, then the indecent comment made by the Prime Minister on Congress MP Renuka Chaudhary, the comment made by a ruling party MP on Mahua Moitra and the recent comment made from the bench on MP Jaya Bachchan in the Rajya Sabha on August 9 cannot be left out in the Indian context. At least I cannot.

When someone says ‘enough is enough’ from the bench of the House or when someone’s tongue is forced to say ’50 crore girlfriend’ and ‘Congress’s widow’, then believe me, it is the values ​​of their society that are rotting in their veins, not the teachings given by their mothers. Gender inequality is the life-giver of a male-dominated society, as long as it remains, their star of power will keep shining. That is why this society keeps trying to keep women economically backward under any circumstances or should I say that all governments are indifferent towards women’s participation. According to the World Bank’s Women, Business and Law-2022 report, about 240 crore women of working age do not get equal economic opportunities. Along with this, 178 countries of the world have created such legal complexities that limit the economic participation of women.

There are 86 countries that have banned women from holding some type of job and 95 countries do not guarantee equal pay for equal work.

In such an environment, when Vinesh Phogat comes out fighting with her family, society and family, and climbs the ladder of success with her hard work, then she should get nothing but appreciation. But nowadays appreciation has also become political. Now take the example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he did not congratulate Vinesh on her consecutive wins, but when she was defeated, he came out in her support on social media. But not once did he openly say to the country that I am the Prime Minister of a country with a population of 140 crores, the government, the Indian Olympic Association, everyone will try together. If there is even the slightest possibility, we will definitely fight for Vinesh. On the contrary, the people associated with him started making fun of Vinesh and writing indecent and obscene posts on her and started sending/spreading indecent messages on WhatsApp.

All I want to say is that men have created all the institutions, they are in the majority in them, they decide whether marriage should be done even after rape, they decide whether horoscopes should be matched with the accused despite sexual exploitation, it is the men who want to decide whether there is a possibility of rape in the relationship of husband and wife or not. Whether reservation should be given to women or not, this too is being decided by the male population in the parliament. Whether reservation should be given now or after many years, this too is being decided by men. Where is the woman? Where is she in the deciding role? Will decisions always be taken for her or will she also be able to take decisions? The situation has become the same for women everywhere, be it job, politics, family, road. The society created by men also wants to decide what should be included under feminism and what should not.

At the root of all this is gender inequality which is not coming to an end. Generations after generations are being destroyed in it. Male power is not even ready to give opportunities. Even if those who have got the opportunity complain and say that “your tone was not good”, then the condition of the person becomes worse. That is why India is ranked 17th from the last in the 2024 issue of global gender gap and the same situation was in 2021. India’s position is 129th as compared to 146 countries. In terms of education and health of women as compared to men, India is ranked 142nd and 146th (last position) respectively.

hese statistics are informing us about the health of India’s ‘sexual body’. It is also informing us about how seriously women are taken in India. For thousands of years, the roles given in mythical texts have been carried on as divine.

This disease is not just in India, the whole world is connected to it in some form or the other. Look at the chiefs of the world’s top 500 companies, you will hardly find women. Look at the list of nations included in the United Nations, how many nations have women as their heads? Some people will say straight away that hey, women are coming forward everywhere. It is true that women are coming everywhere – from space to engineering and from CEOs to heads of states; but their number is very less. Women are not being allowed to reach leadership positions. The reason behind these conditions is the social structure that men have created with great care for their benefit over hundreds of thousands of years and through which they do not want to stop exercising power over women. ‘Progress on Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Snapshot 2023’ reveals that with women holding only 27 percent of parliamentary seats, 36 percent of local government seats and 28 percent of management positions, there is a lack of diverse perspectives in decision-making processes, which hinders comprehensive policy making. The statistics show how women are lagging behind in important decision-making positions. These are the positions that take ‘decisions’. Women should be here, when there are women in these positions, then they can pull down those who say ‘dominance is still there’ and bring them to their knees.