Pregnancy tests on women boxers: Boxing India says it was following AIBA rules

Boxing India (BI) has denied the reports in the media claiming that India’s women boxers, including juniors, who are set to compete at the World Championships in Korea next week, have been forcefully subjected to pregnancy tests. “A few media reports have published that pregnancy tests were conducted or forced upon on junior girls. We would like to reinstate that such reports are baseless, misleading and are misrepresentation of the facts,” Boxing India said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_1714521” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Getty Images[/caption] Boxing India stated that it was only abiding by AIBA guidelines. According to the release, AIBA listed a number of conditions that boxers from National Member Federations must fulfill for participation in the Women’s World Boxing Championships Jeju later this month. The requirements state that all boxers must carry “non pregnancy form issued by a medical doctor”. Boxing India also said no juniors could participate in the world championships so it was impossible that any of them could have been tested. “The minimum age requirement for the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships Jeju 2014 is 19 years and the youngest girl participating in this camp is 1994 born. Since no junior girl has been inducted in this camp, the question of conducting pregnancy test on junior girls doesn’t arise at all,” it stated. SAI consultant Dr PSM Chandran, who is president of Indian Federation of Sports Medicine, had said the pregnancy tests were conducted by Sports Authority of India (SAI) at the behest of BI. “These boxers have been compelled to undergo pregnancy tests. They ordered and the SAI followed suit. Pregnancy tests were carried out on eight young unmarried girls, some even juniors, a classic case of human rights violation,” Chandran claimed in a press release. “The shocking thing is that it was done against rules. In the AIBA Technical Rules 2.1.4.2 which came into effect on 31 Aug 2014, there is no provision to subject boxers to pregnancy tests. The rule states “Women Boxers must additionally submit a non-pregnancy declaration along with the Medical Certificate. For Women Boxers under the age of 18, this non-pregnancy declaration must be signed by at least one of their parents or legal guidance’,” Chandran explained. With inputs from Agencies