The highly anticipated ‘We Women Want Festival & Awards 2024’ kicked off today at the Taj Ambassador Hotel in New Delhi. The Editor-in-Chief of NewsX, Rishabh Gulati set the tone for the event by outlining the history of the “We Women Want” initiative, which has successfully hosted two conclaves in Delhi and one in Mumbai.
The editor-in-chief of News X Rishabh Gulati set the tone and tenor of the function by explaining the history of We Women Want which boasts of hosting 2 conclaves in Delhi and one in Bombay. This conclave aims to reflect the perspectives of women of different generations from different fields on what can be done for women-led development.
The first session began featuring Dr Aruna Kalra, the director of OBGYN CKB Hospital, Dr Gita Prakash, consultant of Internal Medicine, Max Healthcare where the discussion revolved around menstrual health and sexual health and what the dos and don’ts for women as well as men.
The second session featured a panel of sportswomen. The discussion was led by the Associate Editor of News X Uday Pratap Singh and the editor of Sports Manoj Joshi. This session encompassed women from various sports fields starting with Meenu Kaliraman, a Mountaineer, Poonam Chopra, a Judo Champion, Simran Sharma Vats, a Bronze medalist at the Paralympics and Sweety Boora, a Boxing World Champion.
Mantra for Success
The session started with a quick introduction of all the athletes by the Sports editor. Associate editor Uday Pratap Singh raised the question to the panel asking for the three essential things that all the athletes did in the pursuit of their success.
Meenu Kaliraman boasts of being the only Indian to climb the peaks of Mt. Everest (the World’s highest peak) and Mt. Lhotse ( Fourth highest peak) simultaneously. She believes that one should sacrifice peace, sleep and relatives. One should be able to leave their comfort zone and should choose the hard strides. She believes that girls are pressured to get married as soon as they turn eighteen, which restricts the girls from achieving their ambitions.
Sweety Boora who’s a world champion in boxing also insisted that they should leave their comfort zone and one should have self-belief in themselves.
“If one has self-belief, then one can do anything not only boxing. God has given us the capability to transform our thoughts into actions. One should have the hunger and desire to reach the target and should never lose hope ” said Sweety Boora.
She also believes that one should have a big and brave heart and that setbacks shouldn’t stop one from realizing their ambitions. She believes
” Many people have vision and plan, but once they get punched in the court, many of them fear to make a comeback, one should have complete faith and belief in themselves then they can achieve anything” said the World Champion Boxer. Poonam Chopra, who was initially awarded by Kapil Dev and Bishan Singh Bedi for her heroics in Cricket changed her sport to Judo due to financial struggles. She’s the first Indian woman to have won the gold medal in Judo.
She believes one should be disciplined and should start early, ” The kids in the school should join the classes of judo from early on, just like SAI’s facilities in IGI stadium, and other private centres also teach judo, so parents should enrol their kids,” said Poonam Chopra.
Challenges faced by Para Athletes
Simran Shah, who has won a medal in track events in the Paralympics talks about how specially-abled people are either made fun of or they are seen as the victims. The Paralympic gold medalist believes none of that should be done as it affects their morale.
On the importance of support from the family members
She also emphasises how she started the sport after her marriage and how her husband has played a key role in bringing discipline to her life who works in the army. She says ” My husband kept me on my toes, with his strict army rules and initially I would get irritated, but I realized the importance of having discipline after I lost a few tournaments, and when today I have won the medals I give credit to my husband for shaping discipline in my life and today he has set the example of being an ideal husband”
Sweety Bora also explains how her current partner Deepak Hooda ( Indian Kabbadi Player) and she have supported each other during the different phases of their careers. World champion boxer had met her husband during the function in Haryana where both of them were invited as guests. From there, their conversations started to what has culminated today in a happy marriage. Bora describes her relationship with her husband as “We are the biggest support for each other”.
Mountaineer Meenu Kaliraman dedicates her success to her father, she says ” he’s her biggest support, and she can overcome any challenge if she has her father’s back. She can do anything, with his support.
Milkha Singh Inspiration
Simran Shah who won gold medals in the Paralympics mentions how a tweet of Milkha Singh inspired her to win the gold medal in tracking events. During her formative years, Milkha Singh tweeted saying that before I go, I have a dream of an Indian youngster winning a medal at a tracking event at the global level. So that inspired Simran Shah to win the gold medal in tracking events and finally in the recently held Paralympics she won the bronze medal.
On Facing Gender Discrimination
Mountaineer Meenu Kaliraman believes that there’s discrimination among the genders in her state and a lot of elderly women as well as other men of the family undermine the ability of girls and women.
“Despite achieving so much success. Women and Girls face discrimination. People undermine the ability of girls and even my own brother would question my ability at times” said the Mountaineer.
On breaking financial barriers
Judo Champion Poonam Chopra faced numerous difficulties during her formative years and despite initial difficulties, once she started earning medals, she said she got financial support too.
“There were difficulties but we managed, govt supported us as well. At that point, there weren’t many cash rewards, and Delhi didn’t have much scope, but Haryana offered some financial support so started playing for them. I always thought of how I could contribute to the nation instead of what I could get after winning the medal.” said the Judo Champion.
Even Meenu Kaliraman said that if one is truly passionate about something the doors will pave the way for them automatically and no force in the universe can stop them from reaching their feat.
“One who has determination and passion, the money won’t be a barrier,” said the record-breaking mountaineer.
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