With national attention focused on the commendable exploits of our men in blue in the ongoing cricket test match series against England, attracting huge in-stadia spectators unimaginable in this diarist’s youth years expended in Blighty, the unprecedented victory of the Indian women’s cricket team in the T-20I (international) series last month has received insufficient attention. India’s women in blue defeated England 3-2 in the five match series winning the first, second, and third matches and losing the fifth on the final ball. 

Notable achievers in India’s women’s cricket — and other sports — deserve much greater publicity and acclaim. The proposition that Indian women, who because of generations of relative malnutrition and oppressive patriarchy tend to be small, would ever best English women — who typically have large hands and sturdy bowling-pin legs which give them an advantage in catching and running — in cricket was beyond the imagination of even most ardent domestic feminists. But not only are Gen Z girls and women giving as good as they get in cricket, but also in field hockey and badminton which require strong legs and huge reservoirs of stamina. True our women tennis and track and field athletes are not yet globally competitive, but they are on their way.

Public honour and rewards for Indian women sports champions are important because their emergence out of historically encouraged seclusion and demonstrating performance capability is likely to improve India’s dismal FLFP (female labour force participation) rate. Currently the country’s FLFP rate is a mere 32.8 percent against the global average of 48-49 percent. In China the rate is 60 percent, in Vietnam 70 percent. Even in neighbouring Bangladesh it’s 35-40. According to several studies increasing India’s FLFP to Asian average, would boost annual GDP by the 1.5-2 percent required to make the Viksit Bharat and $30 trillion GDP by 2047 goals achievable. One hopes that the neta-babu brotherhood which (mis)rules the country with iron grip makes the connection.