[Applause]
hi hi y’all
as he said my name is ready and I’ll be
talking about the men in sports when
these guys ask me to come here and speak
in front of you about women and sports I
was like yes I get to be famous but as I
started writing points about women in
sports I suddenly thought that really we
are in 21st century where women are
going toe-to-toe with men and we are
talking about women in sports under the
heading of inclusion still I mean I was
surprised but at the same time the
subject needs to be spoken about so here
I am talking about women in sports I
start with my own story because you know
I’m cool that way so as he said that I
am obviously an engineer because every
other person in India is an engineer so
yeah I started my engineering I knew
that I’m not an engineer realistically
speaking you know engineers are
brilliant
I wasn’t but as I started my college
years I started playing football you
know because every boy in engineering
colleges play football and I was excited
so I started playing with them and that
sport got me so excited that I decided
ok I’m done I’m not going to be an
engineer I’m not going to work 9 to 5
best job you know so I want to make my
career in sports
yeah ok
fine but what’s next how do I do that I
needed a ride course a right path to be
on so I started searching for different
courses and I came across a unique
course called football industries MBA
simba for short and it’s a course in
University of Liverpool it’s a very
unique course you know nobody else none
of the universities in any anywhere else
have that kind of sports so I enrolled
for it and when I’ve been there somebody
over there some faculty over there told
me that I was the first Indian woman to
do such a course and I was really happy
you know but at the same time I felt
really sad because what it told me that
none of the other women even thought of
pursuing career in sports which was a
sad part but also I was happy because
you know kind of pioneer and then that
course led me towards an internship
which was also a unique opportunity you
fr did you guys know what you FIS UEFA
is a European footballing body which is
a big deal they organise Champions
League and so many different leagues so
this was a very unique opportunity for
me to work with UEFA there was another
guy from my class we both were the first
Indians to do an internship with UEFA it
was a joint internship with UEFA and
another organization called Asian
football development project and I was
lucky to have a project which was on
women’s football in India and that
project threw me all over the country I
horizontal and vertical and diagonals of
India it took me two obviously Delhi
Bangalore but it also took me to
northeastern regions which are which are
not untouched and
it was an amazing experience for me
because no none of the women or girls I
knew had ever done that and it surprised
me because why it was like a question
for me why not why aren’t other women or
girls so excited about working in sports
so I started researching on it right and
you know I am a City Bond girl so
obviously I have not gone through all
the gender bias my family is amazing
they supported me throughout my life but
that doesn’t mean that the problems
don’t exist and these problems I faced
when I actually started going out
talking to people talking to other women
everybody who was working in sports
field women sports field for that matter
some of the problems are very serious
some of the problems are unsurfaced
not so serious but when you actually
think about it
more serious problems are like child
marriage still in rural India girls do
get married when they are 10 12 13 and
actually saw these girls you know when I
went to a small village in Assam in
Bordeaux lands I saw girls getting
married at the age of 10 they never get
an opportunity to go to school or play
for that matter sexual harassment is a
big deal it’s a very serious problem and
it is done by the people we put our
faith in like coaches selectors and then
there are some not so serious problems
but equally important something like
language I am all for unity in diversity
right I’m really proud of my country
that we have so many different languages
but when a team comes together do you
guys remember a scene
Chak De India when the girls from the
southern southern region of India comes
for selection and the selectors don’t
know what she’s saying she doesn’t
understand what they are saying it is
real it’s real you can see that when you
actually travel around the country the
other part is attire guys let me tell
you we are so lucky we get to wear
shorts when we go out to play or sports
appropriate attire but the girls staying
in rural regions many of the schools
have canceled their teams girls teams
because they are not allowed to wear
shorts or they are not allowed to go out
and son because their parents think
they’ll get tan they’ll get bruises you
know and who’s going to marry them then
it’s a problem and also of course many
of the city girls including me face
before and after marriage problems
before marriage
okay fine guys come to you they
appreciate what you’re doing oh my gosh
so cool that you’re doing a career in
sports but when it actually gets to the
point where you have to marry the girl
who’s dedicated to sports not so much or
after marriage the husband your husband
or the family members of your husband or
even your family members do not want you
to place any sport when you are married
they want you to concentrate or and you
know kitchen husband your full-time jobs
and you know that makes me really sad
inside here I mean are we really living
in 21st century are we still equal I
don’t think so
and the biggest problem I found is us
women and I’m going to demonstrate a
little bit so I want every women in this
audience to read Quran can you do that
look around look around guys okay guys
raise your hands all guys how many of
you still sleep please food look around
why why do be okay why why do we blame
the other gender when we ourselves are
not serious enough about sport that is
the most important problem in our
society we have if you want to break the
norms we have to be the one to break the
not so while thinking about this one
thing came to my mind and if you want to
change the perspective of the fight
society looking towards you then you
have to lead by example so what I did
was unknowingly I already started that
when I enrolled for football industries
MBA the second thing is I’ve worked for
four years in football field which is a
predominantly male field but seriously
I’m telling you I never experienced
gender bias because I was very good at
what I did the third thing I did was I
wanted to get in touch with women like
me so I founded women in sport India
which is a forum where all the women in
sport can connect with each other share
knowledge information the fourth thing I
did was I started my own company in
sports which is very rare and you know
it was very satisfying for me you know
starting something on my own no desk job
I lead the way and everybody else
follows right it was I’m really happy
with the result so before I come to the
conclusion I have a story to that it’s
about a girl a very very young girl
staying in a far far village who wanted
to play sports who wanted to play
football
but her parents her society did not want
her to do that so what did she do she
cut her hair she took a boy’s name and
she started playing in a boys team
nobody knew that she was a girl
and she was so good that the state
associations the clubs in that village
started noticing girl and later on she
went on to became become the national
football team captain
her name is bambam Davey and when I met
her and when she told me the story I was
like Hollywood in your face so what I
got out of the story five things five
things I got out of the story first stop
hiding behind the problems gender biases
their society doesn’t look at you the
way it should so what do what you got to
do you know stop hiding behind them
second be indispensable be so good at
what you’re doing
gender bias stays behind people will
start looking at you because of your
work not because of your gender third
thing third thing is very important
because I feel that every woman and it
applies to every feel I feel that stop
under estimating yourself it’s the
biggest obstacle in your path to success
fourth thing is I feel that I feel the
problem we will look at the problem from
the problems perspective stop looking at
the problem look at the solutions get
out of your comfort zone go out rubella
little and fifth thing is stop being
scared stop being scared of what people
are going to say about you stop being
scared of society so social nor do what
you meant to do once you start doing
that the barriers will break
automatically and that’s that’s actually
the message that I want to space say to
you and send out to the universe and
with that I think I’ll end my turn [Applause]