CHENNAI: May be it’s probably the first of such instance in sports. The Sports Authority of India (SAI), at the behest of Boxing India (BI), has subjected women boxers – scheduled to take part in the World Championships in South Korea next week – to pregnancy tests.
The allegation was raised by Dr PSM Chandran, former director (Sports Medicine) of SAI. Chandran, who is now the president of Indian Federation of Sports Medicine, alleged that the eight boxers, including unmarried and juniors, were forced to undergo pregnancy test in Lal Path lab in Delhi on Tuesday. The samples for the tests were collected on Tuesday afternoon and the results were sent to SAI on Wednesday afternoon.
Chandran said that such tests violated human rights. “This is against the rules. Even in the AIBA rulebooks, there is no provision to subject boxers to pregnancy test,” he explained.
According to Chandran, women boxers are only required to provide a personal non- pregnancy declaration along with their medical certificate. The AIBA technical rules 2.1.4.2 states that women boxers must additionally submit a non-pregnancy declaration along with the medical certificate. For women boxers under the age of 18, this non-pregnancy declaration must be signed by at least one of their parents or legal guardian.
The over-enthusiastic boxing administrators, insensitive to human rights, went beyond this and conducted the tests. “The hapless girls, in their eagerness to don India colours, had no choice but to concede to such barbaric demands by the officialdom against their own dignity and honour,” Chandran added.
The purpose of submitting non-pregnancy declaration, according to boxing experts, is to avoid women at the early stage of pregnancy from participating in bouts. “It’s a rule intended to avoid causing injuries to the foetus. But if the news about the forcible test is true, it’s violation of human rights as well as privacy of women,” said a boxing expert, on condition of anonymity.
When contacted, BI secretary Jay Kowli said he was not aware of the issue. Women’s national coach Anoop Kumar also refuted the allegation and said it was doping test that was conducted in the national camp in Delhi and not pregnancy test.
“How can people say such things? What we had was out of competition doping test, not pregnancy test. I don’t know how this allegation came up,” he asked. SAI director general Jiji Thomson could not be reached.