PANAJI: A shocking reality exposing the insensitivity of Goa’s sports ministry and officialdom towards the risk of sexual abuse of athletes by trainers has come to light with the Sports Authority of Goa having no policy in place to recruit female coaches in any discipline.
World over, sports administrations are breaking their backs to ensure gender parity in coach staff rosters if only to serve as a deterrent for instances such as the shocking one where Goa’s swimming coach S Ganguly allegedly allegedly molested and sexually abused a minor girl trainee.
And, its not that Goa suffers from a dearth of female coaching talent.
A top official of the SAG said, there are no guidelines in place mandating intake of female coaches to be assigned for training sportswomen. Blanche applied to the NIS Patiala thrice, but was not selected for the diploma course.
After Thursday’s development’s where Ganguly was sacked after the police booked him for molestation and rape following a video which showed him in the act of molesting the victim went viral, a top SAG official told ‘The Goan’ that there were no guidelines which required sportswomen/athletes to be coached by female coaches.
The official who has served
the administration for nearly three decades however did not want to be identified.
But Opposition Leader, Digambar Kamat, who heads the Swimming Federation of India (SFI) told The Goan that the number of girls opting for the swimming discipline was rising and parents of these athletes have been requesting for female coaches.
“I had specifically suggested the name of Afra Sheikh, a Goan who has an NIS Diploma in swimming, for appointment as coach. I had also asked the government which assured me that the issue would be taken up. After the Assembly session, I followed it up with a reminder letter,” Kamat said.
But Kamat did say there was a a shortage of coaches, which was a problem.
“You require an NIS Diploma to be a coach. Without an NIS Diploma, a swimmer cannot be recruited as a coach,” Kamat said.
The stringent criterion, perhaps, is the reason why three lady swimmers who had applied for the positions of swimming coaches vacant in the SAG, were summarily rejected.
One of the applicants, Jolene Blanche, who is now a private swimming instructor at Hotel Fidalgo and the Crown Hotel said that the SAG had never explained to her why she had been rejected for the coaching position.
The national level swimmer had done a course in life-guarding at the Verem Navy School, and even underwent a short training in the United States of America in the Michael Phelps Swimming School where she not only learnt to teach swimming, but also to train coaches.
She claimed that when she had applied her case was taken right up to the level of the late Manohar Parrikar who as Chief Minister then was also the ex-officio chariman of the SAG. But no headway was made.
According to her, lady coaches in the arena during training could be a huge deterrant for incidence of sexual abuse of female trainees, the kind which spilled in the public domain through a viral video on Thursday.
