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While team sports in India are slowly starting to equalise wages for women players, are some of the measures just eyewash?

Will the gender pay gap in Indian sports ever be bridged?

While team sports in India are slowly starting to equalise wages for women players, are some of the measures just eyewash?

In October 2022, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that the Indian men’s and women’s teams will be paid equal match fees. That’s after other sports such as table tennis and badminton equalised match fees for men and women. Back in 2012, Hockey India announced that men and women players on the national teams would be paid the same retainer fees. Are these measures enough to reduce the gender wage gap in Indian sports? 

No dearth of hurdles

“There is a need to professionalise the structure of payment in sports in India in general,” says senior sports journalist Sharda Ugra. “Players on most national teams (outside of cricket and rugby) do not receive match fees for representing the national teams, although they may get funding for kits and training, and a daily allowance when in camp or during the season. It’s especially hard for team sports, as athletes can get their own sponsorships in individual sports.”

In October 2022, the BCCI announced that the Indian men’s and women’s teams will be paid equal match fees. Image: Instagram.com/indiancricketteam

In October 2022, the BCCI announced that the Indian men’s and women’s teams will be paid equal match fees. Image: Instagram.com/indiancricketteam

Players on most national teams (outside of cricket) do not receive match fees for representing the national teams. Image: Instagram.com/indiancricketteam

Players on most national teams (outside of cricket) do not receive match fees for representing the national teams. Image: Instagram.com/indiancricketteam

Twenty-seven-year-old Palak Poddar is a Kolkata-based state-level rugby player. She plays for the Bengal Rugby team, under the aegis of the Bengal Rugby Union, and referees internationally. She mentions that until 2021, no player got paid anything at all for playing at any level, whether it was the men’s team or the women’s team.

Now, however, national-level players have started getting a stipend for attending camp, and the pay is equal for both men and women. The amount increases depending on whether you’re on the team, whether you’ve played a match, or won. State-level players are still not paid. At some point soon, Poddar fears that she will have to choose between her passion for rugby and whether it is feasible to pursue it as a career.

“It also depends on which state in India the athletes are from,” she says. “In many states, you can get some amount of prize money from the government if you win, from a lakh up to 10 lakhs. The state of Odisha is actually the current sponsor of Rugby India. That’s not the case in Bengal, though.”

“THE NUMBER OF STATE CAMPS–FITNESS CAMPS, PRE-SEASON CAMPS–FOR THE SEASON IN OCTOBER IS HELPING MORE GIRLS PREPARE BETTER, WHICH MEANS MORE QUALITY PLAYERS” 

Nooshin Al Khadeer

However, according to actor Rahul Bose, rugby player and the president of the Indian Rugby Football Union, “Rugby India follows 100 per cent gender equality in terms of payments to players. We can confirm that across age groups the daily allowance for camps, tournaments and winning bonus is the same for both genders. Not only that, all facilities—coaching staff, accommodation, food, nutrition, training grounds, gymnasium, swimming pool, rehabilitation centres as well as the services of psychologists, dieticians, physiotherapists—are the same for our women and men players,” he says.

But many players have to earn around the year through jobs in the public sector, which means they can’t dedicate themselves to the sport full-time. It can also have some unexpected consequences. For instance, kabaddi player Nilesh Shinde points out that privatisation of public sector companies has affected sports players, because there are now fewer companies that offer jobs under the sports quota. 

“We don’t have pensions for our sport, unlike say, Ranji Trophy players. We don’t get paid for playing unless we participate in tournaments and can show results,” he says. “Our certificates help us support our families through jobs, but companies in the private sector don’t accept them.”

Skewed to favour men

Despite the gradual availability of better facilities, higher funding, and more sponsorships, the takeaway is that players of all genders in Indian sport will be more secure with formal payment and stipend structures. Women, however, have to deal with a much greater burden. 

There is a long way to go in cricket as well, despite the fact that men and women are now paid the same match fees. According to the BCCI pay structure, the highest-grade international male cricketers receive ₹7 crore in annual salary, but highest-grade international women cricketers get only ₹50 lakh. This gap widens further in lower grades. 

A persistent problem across sports seems to be that women players are simply not scheduled to play enough. Shinde points out that there have been nine seasons of the men’s Pro Kabaddi League and only one of the women’s, in 2023. Former India player and current Under-19 national women’s cricket team coach Nooshin Al Khadeer says that the scheduling in men’s and women’s cricket is vastly different, leading to a larger pay gap. Even accounting for the establishment of the Indian Women’s League in 2016, the Indian national football team’s goalkeeper Aditi Chauhan has mentioned that it’s impossible to compare the pay between men’s and women’s football because women are not scheduled to play enough matches, despite featuring higher than the men in the FIFA rankings. 

It’s a chicken-and-egg problem–a lack of sponsorship and viewership in a male-centric sports world, and fewer players, is cited for fewer matches and hence less exposure for the sport, which, in turn, creates a further lack of all three. 

Small  steps in the right direction

Investments at the grassroots level are, however, helping. Al Khadeer says that the National Cricket Academy, the arm of the BCCI that helps develop young players for the national team, is working on creating a network of qualified coaches, physiotherapists and other support staff at the state level, alongside identifying more players with potential. “By monitoring them for the whole year, the Academy is trying to standardise the theory of cricket at all levels,” she says. 

There have been nine seasons of the men’s Pro Kabaddi League and only one of the women’s, in 2023. Image: Getty Images

There have been nine seasons of the men’s Pro Kabaddi League and only one of the women’s, in 2023. Image: Getty Images

Rugby India follows 100 per cent gender equality in terms of payments to players, according to Rahul Bose, actor and president of the Indian Rugby Football Union. Image: Instagram.com/bengalrugbyfootballunion

Rugby India follows 100 per cent gender equality in terms of payments to players, according to Rahul Bose, actor and president of the Indian Rugby Football Union. Image: Instagram.com/bengalrugbyfootballunion

Another major change is an increase in women’s participation in cricket, which means a rise in the amount of the match fees they receive. “One of the major reasons for the pay gap was that we simply didn’t play enough cricket,” says Al Khadeer. “To some extent, we didn’t have enough players either.” 

She gives the example of the men’s cricket team, pointing out that there are enough talented players at the top levels that there can be two teams for two formats of the game, which was not the case for the women’s team. However, this is now changing. “The number of state camps–fitness camps, pre-season camps–for the season in October is helping more girls prepare better, which means more quality players.” 

Al Khadeer credits the 2017 women’s World Cup results–in which India reached the finals–with more and more girls now applying. But she acknowledges that retainer contracts are still not at par with those for men, and to make them so will take time. 

Beyond cricket

Meanwhile, for sports other than cricket, the Target Olympic Podium Scheme was instituted in 2014 to improve Indian players’ performance in the Olympics and Paralympics. Each athlete receives a monthly stipend of ₹50,000, irrespective of their gender. It is funded through the Khelo India scheme under which, every year, the top 1,000 athletes in India will be awarded a scholarship of ₹5 lakhs, to be continued for eight consecutive years.  

Indian women's cricket team for Asia Cup, 2022. Image: bcci.tv

Indian women's cricket team for Asia Cup, 2022. Image: bcci.tv

Back in 2012, Hockey India announced that men and women players on the national teams would be paid the same retainer fees. Image: hockeyindia.org

Back in 2012, Hockey India announced that men and women players on the national teams would be paid the same retainer fees. Image: hockeyindia.org

“It’s made a huge difference in the players’ confidence levels,” says former international badminton player Manjusha Kanwar. “As direct beneficiaries, I can see that they are more secure and, therefore, perform better.” 

Sports performance psychologist Chaitanya Sridhar says that issues of pay are also deeply rooted in the psyche of Indian society. “As an Indian woman, you’re taught not to ask [for] too much,” she says. “I do feel that it is changing nowadays though.” 

Sridhar adds that a wrestler once spoke to her about a job that she had to quit because it was not helping with training. On the other hand, a boxer once told her that she had to perform well in her next match because her family needed monetary support. 

“In my practice, we try to ease the players’ worries, because if they’re worrying too much about payment or a job then it affects their performance,” she says. “We set goals so that they can perform—the better they perform, the better the pay. But a systematic raise would definitely help to create a sense of ease.” 

The availability and quality of facilities, opportunities and pay for women’s sport in India has improved substantially over the last few decades. “It’s good to see that decision-makers are thinking about improving the whole system now, and there is comparatively higher accountability,” says Kanwar. “This needs to continue. If sports is to become a career–then women need to earn from it.”

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