National women's basketball team Captain says women in sports need equal rights

A shooting guard for the Indian national women's basketball team, Prashanti Singh  represented the Indian team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games , 16th Asian Games Guangzhou 2010 and 17th Asian Games Incheon 2014. But she isn’t the only gifted woman in her family. Prashanti has four sisters, all of whom have made a career in sports and four of them have, at some point, have played for, or still are in the Indian national team.

Talking about her sisters and herself, she said, “Basketball ek nasha hai… We cannot imagine our lives without basketball," reported Times of India.  She added that her mother is behind the success of all five sisters in sports. "In our Indian culture, we are very conservative about girls. My sisters and I have managed to play basketball, thanks to our mother. She has been a tremendous support throughout. It would have not been possible without her."

The Singh Sisters
Picture By: Divya Singh

Even though Singh is happy with the current team, she believes not much is being done to encourage women in sports in India. She told TOI, "Unfortunately, there are still hurdles for the women players in the country. The system is biased against women. As compared to men, the services are slower to help women improve in their careers. Since there are only three national level professional women teams, we have fewer options and lesser bargaining power than men do."

The captain of the Indian basketball team also feels that most talented youngsters today wouldn’t chose to pick up sports as a career option, because they are aware of the conditions that most Indian sportspersons bear. "It is most important to create job opportunities for women. It is heart breaking when I see girls playing so hard, performing, being humble, staying disciplined and at the end of the day, leaving the sport due to lack of proper support system. Government and corporates should come out strong to sort out this issue. After all, we are half of the population and we deserve equal rights too," she added.

ORIGINAL SOURCE:  Times of India

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