A journey from Indian slums to Germany - for football

Berlin: Khushali Darbeshwar, 19, pinched herself several times as she watched the opening ceremony of the women's football World Cup in a jam-packed Olympic Stadium here. From an Indian slum to Germany - it was like a fairytale dream for her to witness the soccer extravaganza Sunday.

Khushali is part of the 11-member Indian women's team participating in a parallel tournament - Discover Football, a global initiative to help disadvantaged girls, challenge societal norms and make a mark.

"I have never ever in my dreams thought about watching the women's World Cup opening ceremony and the first match of Germany against Canada. I pinched myself several times to feel if this was a reality or not," an excited Khushali said with a wide smile.

Being held on the sidelines of FIFA Women's World Cup, Discover Football has brought together eight teams from across the world for an international women's football tournament in the centre of Berlin.

The June 27-July 3 tournament is seeing the participation of women's teams from India, France, Brazil, Israel, Togo, Cameroon and Rwanda, as also a team from Berlin. The teams have been selected by Streetfootballworld from a list of 38 applicants.

The tournament is accompanied by a diverse cultural festival.

Slum Soccer - the Indian team -- lost their first match against Berlin Monday, but there is no dearth of confidence among the players as they are looking forward to other matches and a global exposure.

"The Berlin team has practised for a month with football experts of the national team. It was a learning experience, but I am more excited after watching the World Cup opening ceremony ... it was breathtaking," said Priyanka Arun Ragit, daughter of a daily wage labourer in Nagpur, who plays as a forward.

Slum Soccer was founded by a Nagpur-based NGO that trains underprivileged children and youth from across India in football.

For most of the girls, the journey from slums to football was a challenging task, but they fought back to follow their dreams.

Shehnaz Kureshi, 19, took to football as the boys in her class challenged her that girls can never play the game.

"I was interested in football but it is said to be a masculine game. I never tried it till I was challenged by the boys. When I started, I used to play with boys as none of the girls played the game, but now things have improved," said Shehnaz, with the Indian tricolour painted on her cheeks.

This second year humanities student, who was abandoned by her father for being a girl child, had to fight both family and society to play football.

But now she is a star in her slum near Nagpur.

"People in my slum now look with respect and pride at me and even my mother is happy as I have also started earning by coaching children in football. Most of the girls in my locality now play football," Shehnaz said confidently.

Slum Soccer was launched in 2001 with a vision to equip the underprivileged to deal with and emerge from the disadvantages riding on their homelessness using the medium of football.

"It was started by my father, but we started focussing on football in 2007 and decided to use it as a tool to bring a change in society," Slum Soccer CEO Abhijeet Barse told IANS here.

Barse left his doctorate in environment studies in the US in 2007 to concentrate on Slum Soccer. Since then he has never looked back and Slum Soccer is making a mark everywhere.

"We have training centres in several parts of central India and will soon start one in Chennai. We have 12 volunteers and a fund-raising team. We are also developing a curriculum using football as medium for development and making the whole process more self-sustainable for players," he said.

In 2010, Slum Soccer participated in the Homeless World Cup in Brazil and India won the Fairplay Award.

(Richa Sharma can be contacted at richa.s@ians.in)
 

                                           Home | Top of the Page

Top Stories

Upbeat netizens give a strong thumbs up to AMU Malegaon

From Malegaon to Mumbai and Pune, and from United States to Saudi Arabia, the netizens are overwhelmed by the news that the land proposal for AMU Malegaon has finally been approved by  »

Finally, Maharashtra govt nod to AMU Malegaon; ball now in VC's court

Give us AMU centre: Girl students of Malegaon demand on Women's Day

  Most Read

Maharashtra cuts VAT on diesel, kerosene by 2 percent

Providing marginal relief to the common man reeling under inflation, Maharashtra Wednesday announced a two percent reduction in value added tax on diesel and kerosene. Announcing this here  »

Independent India's first caste census kicks-off

Independent India's first census to determine the caste-wise breakup of the country's 1.21 billion people was launched here Wednesday. It was launched in this remote tribal dominated village, 45 km north  »

Poverty, caste census will be almost paperless

  News Pick

20 students, 15 policemen injured in Kerala clash

Twenty students affiliated to the two Communist parties and 15 policemen were injured in clashes here Wednesday during protests against the Kerala government's policy regarding admission to private medical  »

Militants storm Kabul hotel, 13 dead

Thirteen people, including six attackers, were killed and eight others injured when Taliban militants stormed a luxury hotel frequented by foreign nationals in the Afghan capital, Xinhua   »

Google unveils social network to challenge Facebook

The Internet search engine introduced Google+ social network for what it called 'real-life sharing.' To be available first by invitation only, Google said its social network will meet the most basic human needs to connect with   »

India, New Zealand eye early trade pact, launch education initiative

Pushing for an early free trade area (FTA) agreement, India and New Zealand, home to some of the most exotic landscapes, Tuesday  »

Picture of the Day

They are not high-profile celebrities, but at least 33 wildlife lovers have adopted animals at Bhopal's Van Vihar National Park here under their unique guardianship scheme. Others can also do the same. A board is put outside the enclosure with the name of the sponsor.

(Photo: IANS)