A remarkable win for Indian women, on and off the pitch

Having a dedicated sports budget with allocations for women’s sports will be a good structural step to take in the civic budget of Mumbai

- SMRUTI KOPPIKAR

What a win for the Indian women's cricket team it turned out to be.

There's no cricketing aficionado who would have been left untouched by the campaign that the women in blue mounted—slow and stumbling at the start, coming into their own later in the tournament, beating the mighty Australians in the semis, and then powering over the South African team to clinch the title. Even those disinterested in cricket have hailed the glorious win as a metaphor for something beyond mere cricket or any other sport. It symbolises a triumph of women's determination, myriad sacrifices of their families and coaches, and their overcoming of socio-cultural barriers and structural issues to prove that they could be the champions.

In the wake of this stirring win, and taking a cue from cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar's appeal that women must have access to safe facilities at sports grounds, the Maharashtra government has articulated its intention to now include a women's changing room in sports facilities and stadiums and so on. We are in 2025, rather, we have come to a quarter of the 21st century without this basic facility that might make women, or young girls, a tad more comfortable if they choose any sport or athletics. That it took the World Cup in our women cricketers’ hands for this should show us how appallingly short our sports fall—especially for girls and women.