The Sports and Society Accelerator (SSA), in partnership with the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), hosted a closed-door roundtable in New Delhi, India on May 25 under the auspices of G20Empower.
The focus of this roundtable was to provide advice and policy development on the critical importance of physical activity and sport in enhancing women’s leadership skills, with the aim of making them a key component of India’s 2047 national development agenda.
The round table provided a platform to set the context on this topic and allow participants to share their expertise and insights. Diverse leaders from the public and private sectors, government and other stakeholders participated in building a purposeful movement promoting physical activity and sport.
Discussions also included the importance of creating an environment that encourages and supports appropriate physical activity in order to make India an active, healthy and productive nation.
The roundtable ended with the release of a short discussion paper entitled “The Role of Physical Activity and Sport in the Leadership and Empowerment of Women in India”. The brief discussion highlights the unequal backgrounds when it comes to physical activity
Sports access for Indian women.
While it is generally accepted that participation rates in sports and active leisure activities are lower for women than for men, Indian women also struggle with regressive mindsets and limiting social attitudes and practices. It is also likely that the situation has worsened due to COVID-19 due to increasing sedentary lifestyles and the additional burden on women of domestic care work as well as restricted freedom of movement for various reasons.
The brief discussion paper looks at the positive impact and multiple benefits of playing sport or being physically active – in terms of better physical, mental and social health as well as socio-economic benefits. In addition, the letter also highlights the importance of physical activity and sport in enhancing women’s leadership skills.
Research by EY, for example, has shown the role sport can play in every phase of life for working women. A survey found that 94% of women at managerial level played sports and 52% at university level.
The letter goes on to highlight the specific barriers women face when it comes to engaging in physical activity or playing sports. These barriers include lack of awareness and recognition of physical activity, safety concerns, strong traditional gender roles in society, lack of affordable opportunities, etc.
The brief ends with a discussion of the tremendous opportunities that lie ahead when it comes to empowering women through sport and physical activity. It is important to recognize that women come from diverse backgrounds and face different challenges due to their overlapping identities such as caste, class, social status and religion.
As such, efforts to promote physical activity among women must be inclusive, taking into account these overlapping identities and working towards promoting diversity and inclusion.
The influence of strong female role models will also be highlighted in the panel as it can help to break down gender stereotypes and prejudices that discourage women from participating in these activities. Technology’s ability to remove critical structural barriers that prevent access and participation by women and girls is also an important opportunity for India, which currently holds the G20 presidency.
The discussion letter is a foundational document on which the WEP and SSA will work together to provide important policy and research findings on gender equality and inclusion through physical activity
and sport.
The panel was moderated by Ayesha Chaudhary and Radhika Kalra and convened by the SSA team in conjunction with WEP (see panel letter for details on WEP).
The key contributors to the discussion paper are Lokesh Kaza and Mridul Kataria from SSA, with contributions from Ayesha and Radhika.
Co-founded by Desh Gaurav Sekhri and Nandan Kamath, SSA is a non-profit ecosystem developer with a vision to enable universal physical activity, where every child is playing and every adult is active, in India by 2047.
Comments are closed.