Rio Olympics : Empowering Women In Sports.

A total of 117 athletes participated from India in Rio Olympics. India bagged a total of two medals, one silver and one bronze; both the medals won by women in their respective games.

In last few years, the subject of women empowerment has captivated the interest of the people all over the world and especially in India.They were denied basic fundamental rights like Right to freedom, Right to Education, etc. There were wide inequalities between men and women in any and every field be it politics, sports, education or corporate level. Today as well, even when there are examples like Indira Gandhi, PT Usha or Kalpana Chawla, the perception about women remains that they are incapable, which act as a huge barrier when it comes to making a choice of what they aspire to be.

Today, women constitute more than 50 percent of the world's population, undertake most of the work their domestic responsibilities like taking care of their child, cooking food, looking after the family; women are also contributing to the growth of nation as well. Some have become successful entrepreneurs, some are handling the politics of the nation, some are running the fashion world and some are representing the country at international level by playing various sports .

They have been successful in demanding the equality with men in matters of education, employment, inheritance, marriage, politics and in the field of sports as well.

Role of Sports in Women Empowerment.

Social stigmas often cause dejection in women from viewing themselves as physically powerful, proficient and self-governing individuals. In recent years, sports has surfaced as a mechanism to help women work against these self-limiting opinions. With the growing participation of women in sports globally and nationally, sports is being seen as a means of empowerment for women. Their participation in sporting activities enable them to live a life of dignity.

New age sportswomen like Sania Mirza in Tennis, Mary Kom in Boxing and Saina Nehwal in Badminton are the few Indian women who never gave up on their dreams despite of coming from conservative backgrounds. This empowerment has helped women in dealing with crisis and emergency situations and manage things on their own without the compulsory male support.

• Badminton player P V Sindhu won historic silver medal in women’s singles badminton event. With this, she became the first Indian woman to clinch a silver medal in Olympics.

• On the other hand, Wrestler Sakshi Malik secured a bronze in the 58 kg category to become India's first female wrestler to win an Olympic medal.

• Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian female ever to book an Olympic spot in the apparatus events and all-around event at the Olympic Test Event.

Despite the fact that these all sportswomen belonged from families with low income, still they managed to gather all their confidence and achieve what they aspire to be. This empowerment of women by encouraging them to participate in sports has opened up many new and exciting avenues for them in the world of sports.