Dipika Pallikal

Born and brought up in Chennai, squash player Dipika Pallikal is the first Indian to break into the top 10 in the PSA Women’s rankings. She gained global attention in 2011, when she won three WISPA tour titles to attain a career-best ranking of 13th. She broke into the top 10 in December 2012. She became the first Female Squash player to be conferred with the Arjuna Award, India’s second highest sporting award in the year 2012

What’s awesome about her is the fact that she has been quite vocal about the double standards meted out between female and male sports persons. She had refused to participate in the National Championship Squash between 2012 and 2015 due to the inequality in prize money where the women’s championship winner was awarded only 40% of the prize money of the men’s championship winner. Equal prize money was finally agreed to for the 2016 championships where Dipika Pallikal Karthik won the title for the second time!

When the prize money was equal, this what Dipika had to say:

“I look forward to playing the nationals again. My stand (for equal prize money) was not just about me but for the entire women’s squash fraternity. Nowadays, you have more and more international events offering equal prize money. So, it is good that the national federation (SRFI) too has decided to have equal prize money.”