The Women Development Cell of Sri Aurobindo College of Commerce and Management organised a session on “Femininity Test in Sports: Are Women Athletes Actually Getting a Levelled Field to Play” for the students of BCom second semester on 30th May, 2022. Dr. Vishal Kumar, Principal, SACCM extended the formal welcome to Dr. Aman Amrit Cheema, the resource person for the session He highlighted the importance of setting up of for WDC in every institute and also sensitised the students about gender inequality by quoting real examples. Dr. Cheema started the talk by making students aware about the evolution of femininity test and how till 1920s women were not allowed to participate in sports. She mentioned about the discrimination faced by famous sports personalities like Dutee Chand, Caster Semeneya, Pratima etc who were made to undergo femininity tests without their approval just because the looked masculine or had high testosterone levels which is exploitation of right to privacy. She also mentioned the fact that this discrimination and humiliation was only faced by women athletes and they were stripped off their medals when they failed the test. The chromosome based femininity test was banned in 1996 after a team of scientists declared the test invalid. In 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the only sports committee that has declared that no such test will be conducted by them and all are allowed to participate without any discrimination. In the end, Dr. Cheema concluded that World Athletics and other sports federation should follow IOC framework of 2021 to promote gender equity. She also emphasised that ethics should be taught at the grassroot level to eliminate such discrimination. Dr. Manpreet Kaur, extended the vote of thanks. The session was well coordinated by Dr. Robin Kaushal, Dr. Manpreet Kaur and Ms. Richa Jain.
