Kolkata: India’s largest red light area in Bengal will have its first women’s football team emerging from Sonagacchi where thousands of women are in destitute conditions working in sex trade.
The Durbar Mahila Samanawaya Committee has taken the initiative to fight the discrimination against these sex workers and children through football which
is globally associated with the fight against discrimination, TOI reported.
The team named as ‘Amra Padatik’ will start its training from the first week of August.
A class IX student Zoya (name changed) loves to play football. Speaking of her interest in football she says she developed an interest in the sport watching her male counterparts play.
“At first I was hesitant, but then I thought that if boys my age can play this game, so can I without thinking of societal pressure. This thought drives me to play football whenever I get time after completing my studies,” she says.
Another girl Ankhi Das, also a Class IX student and a die-hard Ronaldo fan dream is to become a professional football player.
“All these restrictions about girls not playing football are man-made and it’s high time we defy such preconceived notions and prove to society that girls can play football with as much love and passion as boys,” she says.
Her mother is too supportive of her daughter’s dream. She said: “There’s hardly any difference between a girl and a boy now. I will encourage her to play football and will be there by her side if she wants to pursue it as her profession. I just want my daughter to lead a respectable life, unlike mine.”
Speaking of the formation of the football team, chief advisor of Durbar Mahila Samanywaya committee Smarajit Jana says it was the girls idea to come up with a team and name their passion a name.
“There was a lot of enthusiasm among these children about the World Cup. I would regularly get calls from some of the girls, who later came to me and said they wanted to play football. But they were shy and afraid at the same time, worrying what people would say. There is a lack of conscience in our society which gives rise to various differences and discriminations. So, I thought this is perhaps the best time to break the notion that football can only be played by boys,” said Jana.
This game would boost their self-confidence and help them fight the discrimination while pushing them forward to beat the odds and defy the conventions and prejudices he adds.
“Football, among all team games, is a great leveller and can help break the gender stereotype and kick away the stigma against sex workers’ children,” he said.
The eight-member team is ready to start their training thrice a week at the B K Paul ground near Shobhabazar from August first week next.
With this initiative, not just sex workers but also backward and underprivileged girls would join the team.
Ismail Sardar, son of a sex worker who has represented India at international football tournaments and a member of Durbar’s boys’ team, said, “I want our girls’ team to fight all obstacles and play the game wholeheartedly so that we, children of sex workers, are accepted in society.”