Vetting a Hostel or Residential Academy Before You Say Yes

A May 2023 media survey of India’s national sports federations found that several, including the Wrestling Federation of India, had no Internal Complaints Committee at all, despite one being mandatory under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act since 2013. Several more had a committee that did not meet the law’s own membership requirements, missing the mandatory external member. The National Human Rights Commission took suo motu notice and issued formal notices to the Ministry, the Sports Authority of India, the BCCI, the WFI and 15 other federations. It asked each to report its actual status and give it a written timeline.

This is not a reason to assume every academy or hostel is unsafe. It is a documented, official reason to check before enrolling rather than assume the checking has already been done by someone else. SAI Training Centers and Dedicated Sports Schools in India describe two of the residential settings this applies to, and Hostel Life Away From Family covers what living in one is like once the decision is made. The Facilities Gap: What to Check For covers what to check about facilities at an academy and at competition venues.

What a real complaint mechanism is required to look like

The law does not leave this to an academy’s goodwill. Under the POSH Act, any organisation employing coaches and staff is required to have a constituted Internal Committee with a named external member, not an informal understanding that “someone will handle it.” SAHAS, the Athletics Federation of India’s own safeguarding policy, is one public example of what a working version of this looks like on paper:

• a defined committee
• an investigation process
• an explicit rule that any settlement reached through conciliation cannot be a monetary one

SAHAS is specific to athletics, not a universal SAI-wide rule. What does apply system-wide is a set of directives the Sports Authority of India issued in June 2022. They came after a female cyclist’s complaint about her chief coach’s conduct led SAI to recall the entire Indian cycling contingent from a training camp in Slovenia. Every national federation was directed to do two things:

• ensure a female coach or senior female staff member travels with a girls’ team, domestically and internationally
• appoint one male and one female compliance officer for every training camp, whose job includes staying in regular contact with athletes rather than only responding after a complaint is filed

The questions worth asking before enrolling

A brochure or a coach’s reputation does not answer these questions. Before enrolling a daughter in a residential academy, hostel or long training camp, it is reasonable to ask directly, in writing:

• Does this programme have a constituted Internal Committee under the POSH Act, and who sits on it, including the required external member?
• Who is the named compliance officer for this specific camp or hostel, not just for the federation’s head office?
• Will a female coach or staff member actually travel with the team, or is that only true on paper for domestic events and not for the trips that matter most?
• Has the complaint process ever actually been used, and what happened when it was? An academy that cannot answer this honestly is not necessarily hiding something, but the answer shows whether the mechanism has ever been tested.

Why this is worth asking calmly, not fearfully

Most residential training environments in India are fine, run by coaches and staff who take the responsibility seriously. The documented cases that make this worth asking about include a swimming coach at a SAI centre in Solalgaon accused by his own athletes and a national cycling coach recalled from an overseas camp. Neither case arose because the risk was unforeseeable. They happened in programmes that, at the time, had no working complaint channel an athlete could actually use. Asking these questions before enrolling is a practical safeguard, not an accusation against any specific coach or academy.