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Right from the time humans were hunter-gatherers, women have been involved in the same activities as men, and this includes what hieroglyphs and ancient paintings now confirm were the earliest forms of freestyle football played with a pig’s liver!

For centuries, women’s sports unfairly endured numerous sanctions and limitations, with kings and governments imposing bans. At long last, we, as a global citizenry, have accepted that women’s sports should be on par with men’s sports in every aspect – both the actual sport and the business behind it.

Women’s football in the US now regularly sees as much viewership as men’s football or even men’s basketball. The high standard of women’s soccer in the US is a top-drawer and hence commands such ratings. In India, we see similar patterns when the women’s Indian team plays cricket. The Women’s Premier League (WPL) also saw such high TV ratings. Netball in Australia boasts very high TV ratings as well. What I am trying to say is that the viewership of women’s sports has come of age.

Another great by-product of women’s sports is that as viewership increases, parents’ attitudes in India are also changing. They realise that allowing their daughters to play sports provides them with another career option—one fueled by passion and capable of generating a good living. The Indian government is also actively encouraging more girls’ teams to participate in Khelo India. Government-aided schools are offering numerous benefits to attract more girls from primary school into sports.

The government will need to actively collaborate with state governments and city municipal corporations to enable girls from municipal schools to participate in sports. This can be achieved through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Coaches should be sent to municipal schools to conduct “first steps into sport” sessions that focus on enjoyment, collective learning, and games. It is crucial for girls to enjoy their initial coaching sessions so much that they develop a passion for the games they have chosen. The broad base of municipal schools across the country provides an exciting starting point for experimentation.

The government can also leverage all the sportspersons that are employed with public sector companies like Indian Railways (the highest employer of sportspersons in India), wherein recently retired sportspersons can be skilled and upskilled as coaches and then deployed to municipal schools to catalyse sports participation. A technology platform could be created to engage participants through online learning. This idea has great potential and would further accelerate girls’ entry into a sport of their choice. As India rises into the top 3 economies of the world, women’s sports will also scale up immensely through such government initiatives.

The author is a former Indian cricketer and founder of KheloMore. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.