![]() ![]() Hailing from a poor family, Chand took up athletics for a job in 'sports quota'. In conversation with sports journalist Sharda Ugra at 'We The Women' summit held in Bengaluru on October 3, Dutee Chand, 23, shared her journey from a small village in Odisha to a national stage.Īt the event curated by journalist Barkha Dutt, Chand shared her dream to set up an academy for sprinters in her state to train youngsters who can win medals for the country. The one I chose is a woman,” said India's fastest woman, who became the country's first openly gay athlete after she announced her same-sex relationship. The annual journal of the Indian History Congress, entitled The Proceedings of the Indian History Congress carries research papers selected out of papers presented at its annual sessions on all aspects and periods of Indian History from pre-history to contemporary times as well as the history of countries other than India.“Heart chooses the life partner. The addresses of the General President and the Presidents of the six sections generally take up broad issues of interpretation and historical debate. The journal has constantly taken the view that ‘India’ for its purpose is the country with its Pre-Partition boundaries, while treats Contemporary History as the history of Indian Union after 1947. The papers included in the Proceedings can be held to represent fairly well the current trends of historical research in India. Thus there has been a growth of papers on women’s history, environmental and regional history. This journal has appeared annually since 1935 except for five different years when the annual sessions of the Indian History Congress could not be held.Back then, she was encouraged by her older sister, Saraswati (a state-level runner), to pursue sports as it would help her get a job through the government sports quota and ease their financial situation. In addition to training, Chand would help her family of nine work on sari weaves to make ends meet. Today, as we sit here, in her plush room at the Four Seasons in Mumbai, just over a month after she clinched the gold medal in 100 metres at the World University Games in Naples, making her the first-ever Indian woman track and field athlete to do so, clocking 11.32 seconds, it’s clear that Chand has not let fame get to her. Instead, she has used her acclaim as a platform to come out about her sexuality and become India’s first openly gay athlete. She insists she is “a simpleton”-her warm, infectious smile winning me over immediately. “I come from a poor background, I’ve seen struggle. Money will come and go, but I will continue to be grounded.” She’s candid when she speaks to me about her professional and personal wins and losses as well as her plans to get into politics and philanthropy in the future. ![]() No stranger to fighting adversity, Chand has faced her share of obstacles. It wasn’t until she was 20 that she discovered she was attracted to women. After being in two serious relationships, both ending when her respective partners married men under pressure from their families, she wasn’t ready to commit again. Then she fractured her hand and was homebound. ![]() “That’s when I met my girlfriend,” she says about her current partner. “She was a distant relative who would come everyday to tend to me. I told her my story… and she was extremely kind and understanding,” says Chand. A year after being pursued by her, Chand finally committed to a relationship on Valentine’s Day, and today she’s certain that she is the one she’ll eventually marry. COURAGE UNDER FIREīut her personal life is not the only space in which she has braved her share of challenges. In 2014, Chand faced one of her biggest professional setbacks yet. The Athletic Federation of India (AFI) dropped her from the Commonwealth contingent at the last moment stating that her medical condition, hyperandrogenism, made her ineligible to participate as a female athlete. “It was an extremely tough year, but I decided to fight,” she recalls. Two years later, she won her appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against sporting giants AFI and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and was cleared to run. ![]()
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