Thread by @sohinichat

A #marathon running project in drought-prone Marathwada has opened up the possibility of govt jobs for young women. As parents begin to view their daughters as economic prospects, one behavioural shift is that girls may be fed the same as boys. My story +
fiftytwo.in/story/stamina/

Dowry remains a prevalent problem here: a doctor son-in-law costs about Rs 51 lakh plus a kilo of gold, a teacher Rs 10 lakh plus some gold. Higher education doesn't seem to pay off in terms of a dowry discount. On the other hand, sports offers more viable job prospects +

It also offers opportunity for extraordinary achievement. The second Indian woman to qualify for a track and field final at the Olympics is Lalita Babar at 2016 Rio for the steeplechase. A girl from a drought prone village in Satara, she became one of India's finest marathoners +

But the other side of this women's empowerment is the erosion of communities that the neoliberal marathon culture promotes. Marathons are corporate projects, embodying the takeover of our cities,‌ our countryside, our lives with the designs of big money ++

Sport facilities like stadia or playgrounds are common goodwill projects that corporates mining natural resources in the countryside offer communities. In my travel across India, I've seen these oases of green in dusty smog-filled towns. It's lovely to hear the happy laughter +

of children playing, especially to see girls at play. Yet there is unmistakeable evidence of ecological devastation as big money travels deep into the countryside. It's hard then to weigh what is good: the happier lives of women or the impoverishment of communities +

It took me a couple of months to write this. And years to see the transaction, so to speak, between sport, community, nation and the capitalist impulse for profit
I've promoted this story a fair bit this past week. Thanks for your patience...it's a part of my book in the works🙏