Indian women win at Asian Games in Nagoya as #WhyLoiter protests over safety erupt at home

On the evening of October 2 in Nagoya, Japan, the Indian women’s hockey team won the Asian Games gold, and across Indian cities women took to the streets in a #WhyLoiter campaign demanding safer public spaces; the following morning newspapers carried news of boxer Lovlina Borgohain’s Asian Games gold alongside a report that an Indian hockey umpire had been sent home from Japan over allegations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied.

The concurrent scenes — medal ceremonies in Japan and protests on Indian roads — set an uneasy tone in the national conversation, with celebratory coverage of athletes juxtaposed against continuing reports of sexual violence and intimidation at home. In the national capital, protesters who were detained broke windshields of the buses they were being held in and one woman grabbed an ignition key and drove away; “There is no playbook, no script to these protests,” says Prachi, a young student who attended the Jantar Mantar protests last week. “It’s so chaotic, and it’s also funny at times [like when the woman ran away with the ignition key]. Nobody knows how to respond because it’s so unconventional.”

Indian women delivered more gold medals than the men at the Asian Games — 11 compared with the men’s seven, with three additional golds in mixed events — and individual performances received prominent attention, from Kumkum Mohod’s role in ending Korea’s long archery dominance to Mirabai Chanu, described as “all of 49 kg, lifting four times her bodyweight.” The achievements were presented in the media as sources of inspiration for younger girls and athletes across the country.

At the same time, commentators and journalists questioned the cultural framing that greets sporting success. “It’s not a contrast,” says senior sports journalist Sharda Ugra. “It’s not two Indias. The women are negotiating and navigating the same India.” Ugra also asks, “Outside this daughter framework that has existed forever, does she have no identity?” when describing the recurring narrative of the triumphant yet dutiful “beti.”

The 2023 protests by top wrestlers over allegations against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, then-president of the Wrestling Federation of India, illustrated the risks faced by athletes who publicly challenge power: Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, and world medallist Vinesh Phogat, were among those who were forcibly detained. “The wrestlers’ case showed me where exactly women athletes stand in the pecking order in India,” Ugra says. “They have no status.”

Other recent incidents raised institutional concerns. In July, former India hockey captain Asunta Lakra said young players in Jharkhand had approached her with accusations about a coach and that Hockey India’s secretary general Bholanath Singh threatened her over the phone, saying, “Aukaat mein raho [know your place].” The allegation is now the subject of an independent inquiry. In August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed athletes at the Khelo India Dialogue and spoke about developing ecosystems for off-beat sports; responding on X, wrestler Phogat wrote, “Prime Minister ji, how will [they] participate when the federations [in which they are participating] have goons, criminals, and people who exploit women…?”

Safety concerns begin before elite sport: Shobhita Naithani describes how her 12-year-old daughter admires India’s women cricketers yet faces disruption in the local community playing area, where boys’ behaviour can make girls “come back home with their tails between their legs.” “They operate from a space of entitlement. Like, it’s my right to play here,” Naithani says. She contrasts those conditions with the private coaching her daughter receives and lists the everyday precautions parents teach girls: “Stay on the phone with me,” “ping us when you reach,” “share your live location,” “don’t accept food and drinks from strangers.”

The issues cited in reporting are now subject to institutional processes: the Asunta Lakra allegation is under independent inquiry, and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Parliament in April that 33 sexual harassment complaints had been filed against Sports Authority of India personnel over the last decade — 8 against administrative staff and 25 against coaches.