By Jahnavi Reddy
We’ve been super excited for the Indian women’s hockey team since we heard they’re heading to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio this August. Now we have one more reason to be thrilled for them. Hockey India has recommended Ritu Rani, captain of the Indian women’s hockey team for the Arjuna Award. 23-year-old Ritu Rani from Shahabad, Haryana, has lead the Indian team to finish at third place at the 2013 Asia Cup and the 2014 Asian Games.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports gives the Arjuna award to recognise outstanding achievement in national sports. Instituted in 1961, currently the award carries a bronze statue of Arjuna, a scroll and a cash prize of Rs 5,00,000. We looked at the recipients of Arjuna awards in the past ten years, and here’s what we found.
At it’s highest, in a mind-boggling lottery year, in 2013, it was 53.33%! At its lowest, in 2010, only 20% of the Arjuna awards went to women. And that’s where it tends to hover.
We also looked at the recipients of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest award for sports in India. Khel Ratna was instituted in 1991, and so far only 9 out of the 28 recipients have been women.
Here’s wishing more victory to Ritu Rani and our Golden Girls of Hockey. We’re really hoping to see Arjuna hit the fish-eye of equal representation of women in sports this year.