West Bengal: How football is helping Birbhum girls dribble past early marriage and domestic violence

Meenakshi Murmu, 13, is a Class IX student in a government school at Madarpur village in Rajnagar block in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. Till two months back, Murmu or the other girls in her class didn’t participate in any sports activities, even though the boys got together to play cricket or football on school grounds. All that has now changed for the Santhal girl, a scheduled tribe, thanks to the efforts of Shib Shankar Dasgupta.

Dasgupta is a New York-based engineer from Kolkata’s Jadavpur University who, after a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and a stint as an IT entrepreneur, has now turned philanthropist. His nonprofit, Shreeja India Trust, promotes football among young women in villages, with the objective of building self-confidence among them. The trust will start with eight villages in Rajnagar as a pilot programme in the first year; it will then replicate the model in other districts as well as extend it to the neighbouring states of Jharkhand and Bihar, which also have a large tribal population.

“We chose football coaching over a badminton academy or other sports because, beyond the skills involved, the game introduces girls to team building and fitness,” says Dasgupta. “We also give each of them a football to take home — that gives them a sense of empowerment and bargaining power over their brothers at home and boys at school.”

Birbhum is a district where women face issues such as early marriage, domestic violence and even trafficking. Dasgupta hopes that Shreeja will change all that. “Already, girls are finding friends in other villages and developing a sense of community,” he says. In less than two months, close to 50 girls are part of the programme, which involves hectic football coaching sessions on Madarpur’s community grounds, four days a week. While a coach, Arup Manna, comes from Kolkata once a week to train the girls, talks are on with footballers in Bengal, including prominent women players.

Shreeja has recruited local people to run the programme in Suri, Birbhum, including a few boys as assistant coaches. Four girls maintain contacts with the community. They frequently visit the families of young players and talk to their parents about good health, education and self-reliance. “Along with teaching football, Shreeja India is also starting educational programmes to improve the academic performance of these young girls,” Dasgupta told ET Magazine from his home in NYC.

Girl Power
Murmu, who has been with the programme from the start, is hoping to make it to a district-level football team in a couple of years. “I also think that we can form our own girls team from our village since we are getting trained and many girls from this region have an aptitude for sports,” she says. Shreeja staff members provide the girls with nutrition before and after training, which includes gur, fruit, cornflakes, eggs and milk. “Besides our diet, we also receive mentoring on studies and health. This year, 13 girls from our team will appear for Madhyamik examinations (at the end of high school),” says Murmu.


Young girls at a football training sesion in West Bengal’s Birbhum district

Chandana Marandi, 26, is one of the local administrators of Shreeja, who grew up and schooled in Suri. “I loved playing football but because there were no facilities for girls, I played with the boys in school,” she says. Now with Shreeja’s coaching setup, she sees a few girls doing well in the game.

Tapan Roy, a retired schoolteacher from Santiniketan, who runs a local nonprofit and also doubles as Shreeja’s local coordinator, believes that a sport like football can help in all-round development. “While love for sports is important, Shreeja as an organisation will also help the girls to be more disciplined in their studies.”

Meanwhile, Dasgupta is reaching out to various organisations and individuals in the US to get support for his cause. Kieran DiLello, an avid football player and a high-school freshman from Rhode Island, has collected sporting accessories from his friends and has donated 70 pairs of cleats, 26 jerseys (13 red and 13 white), 21 pairs of shin guards, and 15 pairs of shorts, among other necessities like goalie gloves and socks, to the girls of Shreeja India. DiLello, who is involved with a number of soccer clubs in Rhode Island, including the New England Football Club, is working on ways to take soccer to children outside of the US who might not have the right equipment to play.

DiLello and Shreeja India got connected through Peace Passers, a US-based organisation that brings together local and global communities through the game of soccer.

“There is a huge surplus of soccer equipment in the US and Peace Passers helps to redistribute the extra gear to areas that may otherwise not have access to the resources,” says Candace Cooper, founder of Peace Passers.

Another organisation that has supported Shreeja is Kick for Nick, with a gift of 34 pairs of football boots, 11 pairs of shin guards, 24 pairs of socks and three soccer balls. “Our programme was started with the sole intention of enabling underprivileged children to not only enjoy soccer, but also help build confidence, good leadership and friendships,” Shalini Madaras of Kick for Nick told ET Magazine.

Let’s Ballpark This

Why a B-school student chose Indian football as a class project
Business school students in the US choosing football as the topic for their class projects is not unusual. But what is surprising about Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business sophomore Shiv Jhangiani’s project is that he chose to focus on India which, according to him, is still one massive, untapped market for the beautiful game to conquer. And the 19-year-old is so passionate about the topic that he didn’t just stop at a class project — he went on to write a book 1.3 Billion: A Footballing Revolution in the Making.

“My father is an executive at an MNC and I moved to India with my parents when I was 11. I had lived in Europe, was playing a lot of football and in those days hoped to play the game professionally. In Delhi it was tough in 2014 to find facilities for coaching and training,” recollects Jhangiani.

He succeeded, though, in becoming a part of a joint programme between Edukick Sports in India and French Club FC Metz and, through a talent hunt, became one of the first boys from Delhi to receive full-time training at an international European club academy while pursuing studies. “I played in France for a professional team and was all set for a career in football but my dreams came to an end because of serious injuries,” says Jhangiani, who tore his ACL twice and menisci four times in 20 months.

But he’s still focused on building a career out of football after he graduates in 2019 and the book on Indian football is just the kick-off. Jhangiani has also made an entrepreneurial foray with his sports advisory firm Billion Dollar Foot, which helps clubs, organisations and brands build connections with India and its football.