Article: https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/jilna-a-mother-of-an-18month-old-daughter-returns-to-fast-lane-wins-silver-in-100-metres-7852980/
Question : In what ways do the various features of this article provoke a reaction in the
reader?
The article by “The Indian Express” revolves around a 24-year old Kerala athlete that strove to return
back to shape after enduring the pain of childbirth. The athlete found herself pregnant even though
having a child was not part of her plan, only through discussions with her husband had she agreed to
continue the pregnancy. The pregnancy caused her to lose weight and become frail, majorly
impacting her athletic performance. The article portrays the mother to have not given her infant
enough attention as the mother focused on pursuing her dreams. This rather creates a
preconception of woman not being suitable for sports and instead they must focus on childcare.
The article features a title and a subtitle, the contrast between the title of this article and the title of
other articles based around male athletes, vividly depicts the stereotypes of woman in India. The
title of the article itself shows more focus on Jilna being a mother than her being an award winning
athlete. “Jilna, a mother of an 18-month-old daughter, returns to fast lane, wins silver in 100
metres”, the reference to her infant comes before the fact that she had just recently won an award.
Further, the achievement by Jilna wasn’t even further explained in the title and was only explained
in the subtitle. The word “returns” invokes a feeling of shock in the readers, further undermining
female’s ability to be an athlete and a mother at the same time. It is crucial to note that hyperlinks
to other articles highlighting male athletes usually do not connote the athletes child/infant in the
title. This further extends on the bias that was created.
Furthermore, the article emphasises the shattered relationship between the mother and the
daughter by quoting Jilna itself. Jilna had stated that her own daughter had referred to her as her
sister accidentally, probably because of their distant relationship. This causes readers to feel pity for
Jilna since Jilna never wanted to have such a distant relationship, she only wanted to pursue her
ambitions. This further invokes worries in ambitious mothers, they may feel such that their children
may feel the same way about them if they begin to prioritise their career. Hereby, re-establishing
the common stereotypes of working woman in India. This also discourages females to follow their
passion invoking a sense of incompleteness in woman.
Similarly, the writer utilises language to represent an unhealthy relationship between the mother
and daughter, inducing more discrimination within the article. The line “visit her daughter briefly
before heading back to Kollam to train for the next meet” causes the mother to seem dethatched
from her daughter even though it is not true. The word “briefly” makes the mother seem like she is
only visiting her daughter for a very short while before she continues to work on her career. This
reinforces the fact that the mother is putting her career over her daughter’s needs even though that
is not the mother’s intention. Jilna only wishes that her athletic career takes off and is willing to do
whatever is necessary. Jilna has conveyed her affection towards her daughter throughout the article
and has represented the concern she feels because of not being able to see the daughter often.
Moreover, the article emphasises on the baby’s and mothers disconnection even though it does not
relate to Jilna’s achievement whatsoever. This confirms the authors bias and conception that woman
mustn’t participate in sports because it ruins familial relationships.
The author uses literary devices like hyperbole when he/she exaggerates the toughness of regaining
form after pregnancy which causes the author to seem like he/she is undermining Jilna’s ability. The
line “Jilna will have to vastly improve her time” portrays the amount of skill and effort required for
Jilna to be able to participate in the commonwealth games or the Asian games. It also suggests that
Jilna may not possess the skill. It is hyperbolic since the author uses the word “vastly” even though
Jilna’s score of 11.63 is not very far off from the minimum required scores for the above mentioned
games. Thereby, this line offends and questions the female’s ability to participate in sports while it
reinforces the perception of woman’s aspirations being unattainable due to the need for females to
take care of their families.
The article also features a blog post from the federation cup where the post speaks about Jyoti
Yarraji, another female athlete, in the article. “Since she had a wind assistance of +2.1m/s, it won’t
be ratified.”, the phrase depicts Jyoti’s non-success. The writer states that Jyoti achieved a score
better than the previous national record, yet the national score was not rectified with her score. This
creates a conception for female athletes that their efforts doesn’t influence the sports industry. The
author of the article switches his focus from Jilna to Jyoti further relating Jilna’s hopes of success to
Jyoti’s saddening defeat; which further exhibits the author’s disbelief towards woman in sports. This
invokes bias into the reader and further also causes the readers to lose hope towards woman sports.
To sum up, the article portrays the stereotypes of woman in India as woman being solely responsible
for their infants and that their ambitions must always be given up for the welfare of the child. The
authors’ constant undermining of female’s abilities post-birth also demotivates many adult woman
whom are seeking athletic opportunities. The author continues to keep the infant a main aspect of
the article, even though the infant does not add any relevant information to Jilna’s success hence we
can conclude that the author is purposefully adding bias into the article with motive to discourage
woman in sports.
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