Ex-golfer Niloo wages battle to raise voice of women in sports
The National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka in conjunction with the Ministry of Sports has launched an initiative to ensure women have a bigger voice in sports administration. The two authorities are in agreement that women should play a greater role when it comes to making decisions in sports and discussions are ongoing to introduce legislation to this effect early next year.
Golfer Niloo Jayathilaka is an ardent promoter of the sport and is now a part of NOC's visions
“We have a sustainable development programme. Aligning with the NOC, we were also thinking as Sports Ministry to give fair opportunities of representation to women in National Sports Associations,” said K.D.S. Ruwanchandra, Secretary of the Ministry of Sports.
“We have not given any directives but are in the process of discussing to bring amendments to ensure at least 20 to 25 per cent women in the Executive Council and to include a quota for youth. I am hoping it will be implemented next year,” he told the Sunday Times.
The IOC aims to ensure one-third or 33 per cent representation of women in administration.
“We made a constitutional amendment that one of their delegates at NOC meetings should be a female. One has to be a female otherwise only two will be allowed,” said NOC secretary general Maxwell de Silva.
“We want to get more females but it has to come from the national sports association (NSA). Otherwise we will get whoever is available outside the NSAs into the NOC committee,” he said.
NOC President Suresh Subramaniam felt the perspective that the woman’s place is in the kitchen should change despite Sri Lanka having produced the world’s first woman head of state.
“It is not because we are keeping women away from sport. They have no time to allocate for sport because they look after the interests of men after marriage. If we talk about fairness in sport in a population where more than 50 per cent are females, we have to give recognition to females,” said Subramaniam who formed a women’s committee at the NOC for first time when he took office two years ago.
“One of our initiatives is to ask for a voice in sports in Sri Lanka. What we feel is women’s issues are not being considered in federations because if you don’t have females, they don’t have empathy or any idea of what female athletes are going through if it is dominated by male administrators. That is the biggest hurdle we want to achieve,” said former Sri Lanka golfer Niloo Jayathilaka who heads the NOC women’s committee comprising Ajith Thamel, Fazil Hussain, Reshika Udugampola, S. Gobinath and S. Pathiravithana.
“You can start slowly may be having one lady in each federation. I know we can’t achieve the 33% that IOC wants. I hope we start like a small number with one voice being heard like I am doing with golf,” said Niloo who has been the lone female voice in the Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU) for the past 10 years.
“I feel as a female if they are given a job, they will do it 110%. It is just that federations are not nominating females. They want to make it like an exclusive men’s club. It’s like board of directors in a company. There are so many capable females in the corporate world but in the private sector they want to keep that ‘club’ going. It’s the same thing with sports. They want to keep that exclusivity of men. There are so many capable females in every sport who can come up the ranks in administration and do a very good job if they are given an opportunity,” said Niloo.
“I saw for female cricket there is a male representative. It becomes so silly. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) should have at least one female in the executive committee because women’s cricket is big,” she said.
Apsari Tillakaratne, head of women’s cricket (domestic) at SLC concurred that it would be better to have a voice in administration.
“They are very helpful if we want to start a programme. I can actually speak to them and get it done. They are very much interested in developing women’s cricket,” she said.
“But I think it’s better to have voice of women in sports in future. It’s really good because then you can share your thoughts and ideas. It’s better always but there is no gender discrimination as such,” she pointed out.
The Athletics Association of Sri Lanka does have a woman Irangani Rupasinghe as one of the seven vice presidents in addition to five others in their committee. She is also a member of the Asian body.
Ironically, Olympic hurdler Sriyani Kulawansa failed in her bid to get elected when she contested several years ago.
“When I tried to contest I got rejected. If someone has gone to the Olympics, they should be given an honoured position. We can’t go behind votes. Even if a law is brought, someone who can win votes will come. Even the NOC doesn’t put us in their committee. We have to go through associations. Our voice remains silent. If they want our services, they must find a way to get us into the system,” said Kulawansa who is founding president of Sri Lanka Olympians.