Khadse felicitates rugby women's team, releases ASMITA social media handles

New Delhi, Nov 18 (PTI) Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Raksha Khadse on Tuesday felicitated members of the Indian rugby women's team that won a historic bronze medal in the Asian U-20 Championship.

The felicitation was held at the sidelines of the launch of the social media handles of ASMITA women's leagues.

Khadse felicitated six members of the Indian women's rugby team -- Dumuni Marndi, Bhumika Shukla, Ujjwala Ghughe, Guriya Kumari, Sandhya Rai and Amandeep Kaur.

The bulk of the Indian squad that won a historic bronze in the Asian U-20 Championship in Rajgir, Bihar earlier this year emerged from ASMITA Leagues.

ASMITA (Achieving Sports Milestone by Inspiring Women Through Action) is part of Khelo India's gender neutral mission to promote sports among women through leagues and competition.

"This shows the government's intention to bring young women to limelight. Through social media, we can penetrate even further and raise awareness for women wanting to play a sport," said Khadse.

"We want to create more opportunities for women and tap from the grassroots level. The ministry has a proper structure to groom talent and our women need the attention they deserve. We also have to look at all sports and ensure that people can make careers.

"Look at cricket, they introduced equal pay for men and women. We have to try and apply the same formula to all sports," she added.

Khadse said it was time to have a unique identity for ASMITA.

Since its inception in 2021, ASMITA has surpassed key milestones. Overall, 1886 ASMITA leagues have been conducted so far with National Sports Federations and states.

A whopping 2.14 lakh women have played some ASMITA league in some corner of India. Leagues have been conducted in 32 different sports across 500-plus districts and 600-plus cities, including far-flung villages in Arunachal Pradesh, tribal regions and border areas.

Present on the occasion was celebrated shooter Manu Bhaker, a double medallist at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The 23-year-old pistol shooter lauded the ASMITA programme.

"We women are demonstrating what we are capable of. In the last two Olympics, women athletes have done incredibly well and if we have to do well in 2036 Olympics, programmes like ASMITA and Khelo India are the way to go," said Bhaker.

"More importantly, these leagues are changing mindsets, especially in rural India where women don't come to sport naturally. We should do everything to cheer for our girls because they can do equally well like the men." PTI PDS PDS AH AH