Women outnumber men in climbing Mount Everest

BY PRASHANT K. Nanda

SHACKLED by tradition, it is still an uphill task for many women in India to step out of their homes. Yet, in a happy paradox, India holds the record of the highest number of women who have climbed Mount Everest, followed only by Japan.

Reconciling tradition with ambition, grit with sport, Indian women account for 10 of the 118 women mountaineers from across the globe who have scaled the world's highest peak. Japan comes next with nine.

It is an enviable record, particularly considering that an Indian woman got to the summit only in May 23, 1984, 11 years after Junko Tabei of Japan who was the first woman to scale the 29,035 ft peak in 1973.

Proved

"In India, coming out of your family is a challenge equal to conquering Mount Everest," said India's first woman Everester Bachendri Pal, epitomising perhaps the fortitude that has taken women like her to the acme of their profession.

"But now thousands of women are taking up the sports and have proved that they have endurance. After I reached the Everest summit, it became evident that Indian women had enough power and endurance to do anything they wanted to," said the woman who battled stereotype and conditioning when she climbed the world's highest peak.

Initially, there was huge opposition from her family in the hill state of Uttaranchal. Everybody wanted her to take up the more respectable profession of teaching instead.

"But after the expedition, they have been supporting me unconditionally. In a way, that was recognition of my talent. Mount Everest gave me so much that I pray to it like I do to any other Hindu deity. For me, it is not a mere peak - it's my life," said the 49-year-old mountaineer.

First team

"Mountaineering makes you dream big, but in all humility. Each time you scale a new height, you fall in love with nature and thus become more humble and down to earth."

Pal, who led the first all-women team to the 18,290 ft Karakoram Pass in the Himalayas, says becoming an Everest summiteer gave her confidence and made her aware of her ability as a woman mountaineer.

She is not alone in dreaming big, in charting new paths.

There are the stars like Pal who have made a difference. And there are also thousands of women who have taken up mountaineering as a vocation or just as a sport.

About 6,000 women are being trained at various institutes run by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF), the apex body of mountaineers, funded by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs.

"With desire and commitment to scale new heights, mountaineering is slowly becoming popular among Indian women. And IMF is also encouraging them to achieve success in this adventure sport," said Rita Marwah, IMF vice president and one of the leading names in the field of women mountaineering.

While the four national mountaineering institutes in Manali (Himachal Pradesh), Darjeeling (West Bengal), Uttarkashi (Uttaranchal) and Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir) are doing their bit to attract new talent, thousands of others are training at the many state-run and private establishments as well.

As part of its plans, the IMF sends two teams of 10 women each to scale a peak - be it the Kanchenjunga or Mount Kangri or any other peak in the Himalayan heights.

Awareness

In a welcome move, major schools in India have also started incorporating mountaineering in their course curriculum, some have even made it mandatory to pass the test before students appear for their school leaving examination.

Yet another trailblazer in the field, Dicky Dolma, the world's youngest Everester, feels this kind of awareness is essential.

"I have seen people who have no idea about mountaineering. And unless awareness is created among them, it is most likely that they may not allow their children to enter this field," said the woman who started life from a village in Himachal Pradesh and rose to great heights when she conquered Everest on May 12, 1993, at the age of 19.

That expedition, led by Pal, put seven women atop the summit. Besides Dolma, another member of the team Santosh Yadav set a world record as the first woman to climb Everest twice - having already reached the peak in 1992.

Now an instructor at a state-run mountaineering institute in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, Dolma says she is encouraged by the fact that women are showing the courage to overcome social obstacles.

Like her, Pal is of the view that women showing signs of interest in the sport is a definite harbinger of a revolution, of women wanting and needing to walk shoulder to shoulder with men.

"Indian women lack nothing, what they need is proper guidance and encouragement. Taking up mountaineering implies a strong undercurrent of independence, willpower, confidence and a sense of well being. And I think India cannot expect anything more from its women."

All that is needed adequate government and family support, the women stress.

And then, the sky is the limit.

(Indo-Asian News Service)