Using Sports As A Tool For Social And Individual Development

"Through partnerships with various international organisations, we conduct "Coach the Coaches" workshops where local coaches are taught international techniques of football for social development, increasing child interaction and social inclusion," Misra added.

Agreed Franz Gastler, founder of Yuwa India, which uses football to empower girls in India.

"We use football as a platform for development because girls requested it when Yuwa first started in 2008. We quickly discovered that football is an excellent way to bring girls together and keep them coming back," Ranchi-based Gastler, a 31-year-old American who came to Jharkhand five years ago to teach in village schools, told IANS.

He explained that Yuwa works in villages in rural Jharkhand, which has some of the highest rates of child marriage, human trafficking and female illiteracy in India. He said some of the Yuwa girls have been chosen as brand ambassadors for the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, which aims to achieve 100 percent access to sanitation for all rural households by 2022 by constructing toilets.

"In a place where girls are expected to drop out of school at an early age and get married in their mid-teens, Yuwa's mission is to put each girl powerfully in charge of her own future - enabling her to break free of the cycle of poverty," Gastler added.

According to Misra, the worst affected are the children growing up in slums and low-income families of the mega Indian cities, who face constant abuse, neglect and severe lack of basic resources.

He added that football, being a global sport, has the potential to break the boundaries of rich and poor.

"On the field everybody is same. They are taught values of sportsmanship and teamwork and anybody who wants to play is given a chance irrespective of theireconomic background. No money is charged for participation at these centres," Misra told IANS.

Akshai Abraham, founder of Lucknow-based Project Khel, "a customised programme that uses sports and games as a platform to engage with adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds", feels that there is a need to tap the power sports has in bringing about a change in the lives of people.

"I think there are enough of schemes, like the Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA), but implementation is an issue. The aim of Project Khel is not to create competitive sportspersons but to recognise the value play has in the development of a child and to utilise the power of sport to bring about societal change," Abraham told IANS.

Once engaged, the project's programme leads the children through a series of modules designed to impart crucial Life Skills Education (LSE) though experiential learning and activity-based learning models.

Additionally, it also conducts specialised thematic workshops and modules, which aim to create awareness on issues such as civic responsibility, child sexual abuse, personal hygiene and self presentation.
Read Also: Union Carbide Ex-Chief Warren Anderson Is Dead
India Votes Against UN Draft Resolutions on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty