Mobilenews247 Bureau
The recent incident of the alleged sexual misconduct perpetrated by the Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, also a senior BJP leader and MP, has stirred the hornets’ nest in the sports circle.
The dark-underbelly of the sports coaches and other harbingers has been exposed. Now many skeletons have started tumbling out of the sports interiors with several people in high place have left inglorious footprints by playing the role of predators and sexually assaulting the players and athletes over the years.
Such history has many blots where either the victims were cajoled to remain silent for obvious reasons or getting a few coaches and trainers in the field sent packing home.
Among the most recent incidents of sexual abuse on women sports personalities, the Sports Authority of India had a list of over 47 complaints during the period from 2010- 2020 on sexual harassment. The above figures are obtained from an RTI information available with the SAI.
Details are lurid and disappointing as in the case the known cyclist coach, R K Sharma who dipped down to asking a women trainee to take a massage from him as a preparatory phase requirement in 2022. Sharma’s contract was terminated by SAI.
Even there are many athletes who have now come out with complaints about sexually abused when they were minor. Even this year, an incident in Haryana led to a situation that the state’s sports minister was accused of sexual misconduct shown at a national level athlete. That was Sandeep Singh who just got himself removed from the post.
It was at the residence of Singh that the woman junior athletic coach suffered abuse at the minister’s residence.
Such rots have been all pervasive in the sports arena, be it boxing, football or athletics, there have been instances of the coaches or presidents like Brij Bhushan playing the villain roles.
