Women coaches are a social stigma in India

In 1995, Rupa Kaushik had to quit professional tennis due to a shoulder injury. But she did not want to move away from the game she loved. On advice from her coach, she underwent a coaching certificate program, at a time when it was considered a taboo for women to get into a professional employment, let alone sports.

“ When I did my certification course by the United States Professional Tennis Registry, out of 25 coaches I was the only woman”, adds the mother of three, who runs a tennis academy in Chennai.

Not only in tennis, but across almost all sports in India, the dearth of women coaches is for all to see. The number of women coaches under Sports Authority of India (SAI) is scarce. Women coaches are said to be less aggressive, and demanding as compared to their male counterparts.

The prospect of being coached by a woman may even be considered embarrassing for a male athlete.” I trained under a female coach, and I found that the skills and techniques she imparted in my game to be very good, but she was a bit on the softer side”, adds Ananth Balaji, a tennis player.

But as Sunitha Sharma and Purnima Mahato have proven, women coaching can also bring out champions.

“We may lack the power, but on technique we may be as effective as men”, says former Tamil Nadu women’s team coach K. Hemamalini, who trained under Sunitha Sharma.

Recently, SAI said it would appoint more women coaches to avoid incidents of sexual assaults. This shows the mindset of the authorities with regards to appointing women coaches.

“Most women coaches are sent purely only for security and safety reasons, and nothing above that”, says Hemamalini. In coaching, experience speaks volume, and invariably it’s those who have been in the game who take up coaching, but even then only a handful do so.

The rest of them who do not taste expected stardom, get employed by the Government and that is the end to their sports journey. Experience speaks volumes and invariably it’s those who have been in the game who take up coaching. When I set out to get information from the web on women coaches in India, I was shocked to find the most relevant answers were listed as women train reservation coaches. This is the plight of women coaches.

Even from the grass root levels, schools and colleges prefer male coaches even for women teams.

“To my knowledge, I am the only female coach in Chennai to coach a school and a college”, says Sunitha Suren, assistant coach for the Tamil Nadu basketball team.

To accept sports as a career for a woman can be difficult for a family. But today as our society is slowly but surely embracing “western” culture, why not inculcate it in matters of need? In the United States for example, The Title IX of Educational Amendments was adopted in 1976 to prohibit sex discrimination in the field of education nor athletics, which has been key to empower women in the field of sports.

The Indian Government too set up the National Coaching Scheme to hire, promote and encourage quality coaches in India. But the benefits are yet to be seen, with an influx of foreign coaches in most national teams.

Most national women teams in the country neither seem to be a favouring women coaches. “ As part of the state women’s team which has a good mix of female and male coaches, I would like to see more of this at the national level as well”, adds C.V Swetha, a cricketer for Tamil Nadu.

But the situation seems to be improving, step by step.“More female coaches have been coming up in tennis, as families are now more welcoming”, says Rupa. Even the, the change is not uniform across all sports.

Coaching in any professional circuit requires utmost dedication, time, and most of all time away from the family.As basketball coach Sunitha Suren says, “Coaching involves the prime time,especially for Indian women who have to take care of the household as well it becomes a difficult task to get into coaching. If it was like a 9-5 job then maybe its a different thing altogether”.

The mindset that a woman’s only work is looking after her home has to change. Another reason women stay away from coaching is the meager remuneration that is on offer.

Getting into a male dominated field is a challenge, and proving yourself is a daunting task. Comparisons are often made, which often degrade the skills and techniques possessed by a woman coach.

Women may lack the power of a male coach, but in terms of skills and technique, most of them on par with their male counterparts.“ 90% of male coaches will not come to work under a woman coach”, says Mr P S Ramesh, former coach, Tamil Nadu Women’s cricket team.

But given the right backing and a free hand, nothing is impossible. Women should be allowed to grow as a coach, not just as security guards.