How ‘One girl one football’ is breaking stereotypes and empowering girls in rural Punjab

Baljinder Kaur, a 13-year-old girl from Bour village in Punjab, eagerly waits to get into her sports gear, lace up her sturdy football boots, and head straight to the training ground after finishing her school.

Kaur has been playing football at the district and state level after receiving training under the ‘One girl, one football’ initiative of the RoundGlass Foundation, a Mohali-based NGO that works for the holistic development of girls in rural Punjab. Launched in September 2022, the initiative aims to provide football training to girls between the ages of 6 to 16 years.

Kaur recalls that the NGO team and the coach conducted a door-to-door visit and led many awareness sessions in their village along with the local panchayat to convince their parents to let their daughters explore the game of football.

“Our coach came to our house and she convinced my parents to let me visit and see the training sessions. The moment I went to the playground and saw other children play, I had decided that I will continue with the training, and that was the best decision of my life,” Kaur tells HerStory.

Having played at the state level, Kaur now aspires to become a professional player and represent India Internationally.

“This is a development programme that is focused on encouraging girls to come out and play while breaking the gender barrier in rural Punjab by motivating parents to allow their daughters to go out and play. It nurtures girls’ potential for leadership, teamwork, and discipline, and enable them to make positive life choices,” Vishal Chowla, Leader at RoundGlass Foundation, tells HerStory.

The first steps

The RoundGlass Foundation was established by entrepreneur and philanthropist Sunny (Gurpreet) Singh in 2018 to build a holistic environment in rural Punjab through education, health, and sustainable solutions.

The foundation also started a Sports Punjab programme to promote sports among children and youth in Punjab. For this reason, it has set up 148 sports centres across Punjab that provide quality training and competition experience. So far, it has engaged more than 4,800 children in sports such as hockey, football, and tennis.

“On accessing our sports programme through a gender lens, we found out that girls’ participation was quite low. That was the moment we thought of crafting a girl-specific sports programme,” Chowla says.

In line with this objective, the foundation launched the innovative ‘One girl one football’ programme under the Sports Punjab initiative last year. Although the programme began in 2021, it did not see any interest from girls or their families, and thus the foundation put a hold on it to reaccess the gaps in its implementation.

“On close examination, we found out that most parents were not comfortable with sending their girls to play as most of the playgrounds were in the outskirts of the villages,” he adds.

To solve this problem, the foundation started collaborating with schools in villages to use their playgrounds after school gets over. “This built trust among the parents and a sense of familiarity among girls. Within sometime, we saw the participation of girls increasing from 3% to 45%,” Chowla says.

Currently, the foundation is training more than 818 girls in 47 villages across Moga, Ropar, Ludhiana, and Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab.

Under the programme, each girl is provided with a football, necessary equipment, and access to a coach for training. Each village has two coaches to train a team whose count may vary from 11 to 17 players.

The self-funded foundation has a total of 15 permanent coaches while the number of voluntary coaches varies over time.

Training sessions are scheduled after regular school hours to avoid disrupting their studies. Additionally, during examination periods, the training is temporarily suspended to allow students to focus on their studies.

“This training will help the girls to take up the sport professionally or branch out into allied careers such as coaching, refereeing and sports nutrition,” Chowla says.

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Changing mindsets

Amandeep, a 15-year-old girl from Ghawaddi village, says, her journey so far has been anything but easy. She recalls that convincing the parents of most of the girls was a very tough task.

“Our relatives use to come and tell our parents that we are girls who are meant to do household chores and get married, which is why we should not be allowed to play,” she says.

However, she recollects her coach, Sandeep, a farmer in Ghawaddi village, who also moonlights as a security guard, decided to take a stand for these girls. He went door to door to all their homes and convinced their parents to let them play.

“He took our responsibility and told our parents that he will take care of us and nothing will happen to any of us,” she recalls.

With a deep passion for football, Sandeep wants to change the narrative and empower girls through the sport. “Most people feel that girls can’t do anything. I always wanted to bring more and more girls on the ground to set an example. After associating with RoundGlass Foundation, I have encouraged 35 girls in my village to play football,” he says.

Similarly, Harmanjot Kaur, a volunteer coach from Mustafabad village, chronicles her struggles as the first girl to step into the playground from her village.

“It was difficult to convince my parents initially, but eventually I did. Seeing me practising on-ground, other young girls of my age were also motivated to play. I feel proud and happy to be able to continue motivating and training young girls so that they can make and own their space in the world of football,” she says.

She also adds that rural areas of the region have seen a positive shift in girls’ involvement in sports. She notes that many girls in these areas have been actively playing football in their schools, and the foundation is helping them continue their practice beyond school hours.

While the girls and their parents have been supportive of the idea of wearing the required sports attire, the eventuality of playing a male-dominated sport is very challenging for many of these girls as they face harsh comments from their male counterparts in the village.

Kaur recalls that many boys in the village taunt and make fun of them for playing football. “They say we don’t know anything and that football is a male sport so why are we playing it. But we all are unperturbed by such comments,” she affirms.

The foundation aims to enrol around 1,800 girls in the programme by the end of this year. It is also planning to launch sports centres in two or three villages in Punjab, which will also involve training in other games such as Hockey, Tennis, Kabbadi, and Volleyball, among others. The first centre is expected to launch in mid-May in Fategarh Sahib, Chowla informs.

“Access to football game can aid in reviving sports culture in Punjab along with being a game-changer for girls. It not only enables them to develop skills and confidence on the field, but it also provides a platform for them to challenge gender norms and break barriers. By empowering girls through sport, we can create a more inclusive and equitable world for all,” Chowla says.