Rajasthan Royals might be a team in a
men’s cricket league, but off the field, women are front and centre in
everything we do. With multiple teams in the management being led by women, the
Rajasthan Royals stand out in the sports industry, which is largely known to be
male-dominated. Outside the organisation, we endeavour to constantly work
towards creating platforms which give women an equal chance to pursue their
dreams and help them become self-sufficient.
Enabling Empowered Women Through the Royal Rajasthan Foundation
With the motto Aurat Hai To
Bharat Hai/With Her We Rise, the Royal Rajasthan Foundation (RRF) is
working towards its goal of creating economic opportunities to promote self sufficiency
amongst the women of Rajasthan. The foundation has partnered with Jaipur Rugs
Foundation to run programmes for skill development in handicrafts and rugs
weaving and facilitating market linkage for the local women.
Rajasthan continues to grapple with the
issue of water scarcity and women have to walk several kilometres in the torrid
heat of the desert every day to collect water for their households. RRF aims to
improve the accessibility of water in the state and has partnered with Gram
Chetna Kendra (GCK) to carry out a native tree plantation drive to increase the
groundwater levels. When water is easily accessible to households, women would
have the time to engage themselves in more meaningful tasks.
As a part of its Women’s Access
to Healthcare initiative, the RRF is engaged in conducting sessions for menstrual
health and hygiene as
well as mental health awareness for women and girls. Under the same programme, women have
also been trained in pad stitching.
Royal Sparks - Identifying and
Nurturing Young Cricketing Talent
Rajasthan Royals’ Youth Cricket
Programme aims to provide equal opportunities to talented girls and boys. Through
this initiative, girls aged 6-18 have a platform to exhibit their cricketing
skills and learn from national and international coaches. The comprehensive
curriculum of the programme imparts not just top-level cricket training, but
also mentoring and life skills education. The programme also ensures that the
girls get adequate competitive match practice.
Leading the Way
Outside of the cricket field, a number
of women occupy leadership roles at Rajasthan Royals, heading teams to ensure
smooth management of behind-the-scenes operations round the year.
Harvinder Kaur Sahni
Chief Financial Officer
Harvinder joined the Royals in 2008 and
has been leading the finance team since the inaugural season of the IPL. “Since
it was a start-up, my responsibility was to set accounting and finance
functions from scratch and to put the house in order and who could do that
better than a woman,” she recalls her initial days at the Royals. Harvinder,
also known as Mona to her colleagues, was one of the few women in the team back
in 2008 and she is glad that is no longer the case.
Shuchi Kulshreshtha
Project Leader, New Business
Shuchi joined Rajasthan Royals after two
years of working at different sports organisations in the United States. She is
passionate about sports and is happy that her role at the Royals gives her the
chance to be connected with it. Shuchi wants to see more women working in the
sports industry. “Right now, there are probably ten thousand men who could
get my job, but maybe hardly a few women. So we got to get more women in,” she
says.
Astha Thapliyal
Head of Communications
Despite being apprehensive about working in the sports
industry initially, Astha realised that sports was what she wanted to make a
career in, soon after joining the Royals. She has been a part of the franchise
for six IPL seasons and is now proud of her journey. “Representation does
matter but never get intimidated by lack of women’s representation in the
sports industry, it’s our differentiator,” is her advice to women and girls
who want to work in the sports industry.
Read full stories about the inspired women working at the Rajasthan Royals.
Not a Taboo Anymore. Period.
By partnering with Niine during the 2020 IPL season, Rajasthan Royals became
the first Indian sports team to be sponsored by a menstrual hygiene brand. The
aim of the partnership was to remove the stigma and normalise conversations
around menstruation in India. Apart from the team wearing the logo of the brand
on the back of the jersey, some of the Royals players participated in a rapid-fire quiz to test their knowledge about periods and bust myths around the
subject.
Along with the stigma surrounding periods,
we also urge the society to break down the stereotypes directed at women. Our Women’s Day post is a reflection on how sport has helped women challenge such
stereotypes.
At the
Royals, we are committed to creating opportunities for women to empower themselves
and we strive to make our contribution towards an equal future. To all the
women out there - Happy International Women’s Day from the Royals Family.
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