In one stroke, Goa’s sports reputation has nosedived to a shameful low. Goa’s swimming coach Surojit Ganguly has been booked for rape and molestation, a day after his services were terminated by the Goa Swimming Association following a video of sexual misconduct against a minor girl. The minor has accused the Bengali coach of repeatedly touching her inappropriately and harassing her with threats of going public. This is scandalous and speaks volumes of a complete mess and lack of planning in the sports setup.
But the bigger question is why are students, especially girls, left at the mercy of male coaches, unattended and not supervised? Why are athletes not given counselors to address their personal issues? Apart from the humiliation that this incident has brought to Goa, it has also completely exposed our sloppy systems even as the government goes tom-toming over sports infrastructure.
In pursuit of excellence, appointment of a good coach is undoubtedly going to make a huge difference. But the State cannot chase sporting glory and overlook all other aspects directly or indirectly related to the sport. The security and safety of women athletes has been ignored and hugely compromised. In Goa, swimming is a sport where majority of the participants are girls. It is a sport which involves minimal clothing and there is body contact, even while under water during training.
Parents trust their wards with coaches in good faith with the hope of reaping sports rewards in quick time. They lay their trust in the association, the administrators and the government at large. It is sheer carelessness on the part of the Swimming Association to impose a coach and not monitor him at all. The contention that he was hired because he is a good coach doesn’t hold water, simply because that can’t override all other parameters. And the argument that the minor was an outsider shows how bestial and pea-brained some sports administrators are.
While this incident has come in for sharp ridicule across the fraternity, there are other allegations that have been surfacing as well. It is alleged that private coaching was being conducted at Peddem-Mapusa and non-Goans were allegedly being given preference over training to represent the State. It is also learnt that the coach’s conduct with other girls too was shady and nobody came forth to complain. Students have been forced to go through mental trauma and torture and many must have succumbed to blackmail earlier, simply because of the lack of courage to open up. Where was the Sports Authority of Goa all this while? And why are coaches allowed such a free run?
The incident has not only black-washed Goa’s swimming arena, but caused a major embarrassment to many other coaches in other fields who have toiled relentlessly to bring glory to Goa. Sports Minister Manohar Babu Ajgaonkar had earlier appealed to parents to encourage their wards to take up sports, but is this the environment he is providing? While Goa prepares for the national games at its own sweet pace, this incident only exposes how hollow our vision is for sports.
