“Things are not going to change until Indian women, and their parents, stop being afraid of what society will say. This is the single biggest obstacle. The fear of what people will say and how this will shame their parents means that women are paralysed.”

Indian freestyle wrestler

Geeta Phogat is an Indian freestyle wrestler, known for making history for women’s wrestling in India. She won the country’s first gold medal in women’s wrestling at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and later became the first Indian woman wrestler to qualify for the Olympic Games. Her achievements placed her at the center of a larger shift in Indian sport, especially for women in wrestling. She is recognized for breaking new ground in competition and for helping open a path that had not been there before.