Collective Newsroom is producing and managing the BBC Indian Sportswomen of the Year awards. Prior to this Rupa Jha was Head of India, BBC News and has been leading the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year initiative from its inception in 2019.
What’s the aim of the BBC Indian Sportswomen of the Year awards?
We rolled out this initiative back in 2019, with an aim to shine a spotlight on the remarkable achievements of Indian women in sports and to change the lens that media often uses to cover women, which is mostly as victims of violence. It was also aimed at making the internet space more gendered by giving that space to women as protagonists.
Now in its fifth year, Indian Sportswoman of the Year (ISWOTY) is part of the BBC’s continued commitment to celebrate and honour the success of female athletes. By bringing their success stories to the fore, this initiative aims to inspire the young generation of athletes and highlight the challenges faced by women in sport, including limited access to funding, infrastructure, and social biases.
P V Sindhu was adjudged the winner of the inaugural BBC ISWOTY award, followed by Koneru Humpy and Mirabai Chanu, who bagged the award for two consecutive years. All the awards were decided through public voting.
Public voting for the fifth edition got over last week and the winner will be announced on 17 February.
In addition to this award, we present three more awards:
BBC Emerging Player of the Year to celebrate the achievements of young female talent. Past recipients have been cricketer Shafali Varma, boxer Nitu Ghanghas and shooter Manu Bhaker.
The BBC Lifetime Achievement award honours a female sports veteran for her outstanding contributions and lasting impact on the sports world. PT Usha, Anju Bobby George, Karnam Malleswari and Pritam Siwach have been the winners of this prestigious award.
The BBC Para Sportswoman of the Year award was introduced in 2022 as part of the BBC’s commitment to inclusivity in all walks of life, celebrating the extraordinary achievements and resilience of female athletes in para-sports. Bhavina Patel was honoured with this award.
• What’s the impact so far, this being the fifth edition?
The notable impact of these awards has been its ability to recognise women in sports, bring visibility to women in sports and providing media coverage not just to their victories and achievements, but equally the issues and hurdles that they face and how they overcome them. This constant focus has helped in raising awareness and starting a conversation around women in sports which has been absent.
When Koneru Humpy won this award, as she herself said, it helped bring chess into the spotlight, highlighting the growing recognition and significant contributions of women in the world of chess.
Each edition of the BBC ISWOTY is committed to raising awareness with a deeper understanding of the barriers Indian women athletes face and how they overcome the challenges.
In one of the previous editions, with the aim to spread awareness on women athletes, BBC Indian Languages trained journalism students across India to generate profiles of 50 Indian sportswomen. The Hackathon, in collaboration with Wikipedia, resulted in generating over 250 entries in six Indian languages, amplifying the achievements of those 50 female players in India.
This year, the theme is ‘Champions’ Champions’. BBC ISWOTY, under this theme, is featuring those unsung heroes who have championed the women by believing and supporting them when all they had was potential and a dream. From those who spot talent among the underprivileged to those who provide funding, from those cheering from the sidelines to enablers who provide crucial support to the para-athletes.
How a kabaddi club is changing Indian girls’ lives features the tribal girls who dream of becoming India’s Kabaddi champions. These girls from a small tribal village, Kudoshi in Maharashtra, are redefining their lives after some male teachers came together to form an all-girls Kabaddi club.
A special documentary featuring the dedicated guide runners, who run with visually impaired athletes matching the athletes’ pace, rhythm, and style, will be broadcast on the BBC News television channel. Blind Indian women athletes had never won a medal at the Paralympics until Paris 2024, when Rakshitha Shetty and Simran Sharma qualified in the 1500m and 100m, 200m categories. And with them were their guide runners. This documentary highlights the challenges of the athletes who are visually impaired, and explores the existing resources available for them, featuring Simran Sharma and her guide runner.
Rupa Jha is a highly driven media executive and editorial leader with over 20 years of experience at the BBC, in India, The UK and Nigeria. In April 2024, she co-founded Collective Newsroom alongside approximately 200 colleagues from the BBC, demonstrating her commitment to innovation and excellence in the media industry.