That's The Way: Making Kids Socially Active Through Sports

"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.

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 their economic background. No money is charged for participation at these centres," Misra told.

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