‘They said don’t spoil our kids’: 2 Bengaluruites turn to sport to help 50,000 kids reach school

When Saumil Majmudar and Parminder Gill founded Sportz Village in 2003, it aimed to highlight why ‘sports’ is important in the overall development of a child.

Gill says, “Some of us felt strongly that the game was being missed. When we went to school, and then when our kids went, a lot of things had changed. But there hasn’t been a change in how schools or parents view sport or physical activity – rather, we see it shrinking from children’s lives for a variety of reasons (sedentary lifestyles, gadget use as opposed to active play time, etc.) )”

And hence, Sportz Village was established to engage children in sports and games as a part of their core education. For nearly its first decade, the Bengaluru-based organization worked with private schools that were able to pay for their sports and physical education programs. Now, Sportz Village operates in 22 states – including Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana and West Bengal – and also does significant work in rural areas.

why play

Saumil explains that over the past 20 years, he had tried several models to get children to play in sustainable and scalable ways before arriving at the school partnership model.

“Adults—who control the quality and quantity of a child’s place experience—provide accurate data and visibility throughout the process, as well as influence on the goals they care about (attendance, grades, fitness, sports , and so on) can help 100 million children play,” he believes.

This, he noted, is possible through a structured program that integrates with the school PE timetable, is designed for limited space and time, and provides resources, data, and visibility to the various stakeholders involved. Above all, it “100% helps children develop the right fitness, skills and attitude to play for a lifetime”.

In 2017, the organization launched Sportz Village Foundation to raise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds and help expand its reach to government schools.

“The CSR law requires a corporate to invest only with a non-profit entity,” says Gill. “The new structure was important so that we would not be hindered in raising funds to run programs in government schools. The Foundation also allows us to achieve diverse goals, even though the structure of our programs and the quality of the experience for children are the same in private and public schools. In government schools, which provide education to children from underprivileged communities, there are different things that are bugging the system… The biggest part is social-emotional skills.

Some examples of social-emotional skills are the ability to understand your thoughts and feelings and the ability to connect with others. These skills are widely recognized as important for personal growth and building healthy relationships.

50,000 lives changed

Gill says that keeping children, especially girls, in school was one of their priorities, as the drop-out rate in government schools is high.

The programme, called ‘Sports for Change’, works at three levels. At the base is sports education, which involves teaching children basic physical and sports skills. “(The core of the program) was to integrate children into sports and games because it was central to their experience and development process, whether they wanted to be athletes or not,” Gill said.

According to Upma Kanswa Jain, who manages marketing and communications for the foundation, more than 50,000 students are currently engaged in their programs, He also wanted to create a way out for those who excelled in some sport and wanted to pursue it. So, the next level up is their Sports Excellence Program Pathways, where interested or selected children are given specialist training at their Sports Development Centers (SDCs).

These centers are located within the schools in which they operate. At the highest level, they take the best performing student-athletes from the SDCs and admit them to the High-Performance Learning Centers (HPLCs), where they are also provided with match and tournament opportunities, and participate in district, state, and regional tournaments. Scouting information is given about. , and National Selection Test.

Of the 50,000 students in their programs, more than 2,200 students are enrolled in the Sports Development Centers, with approximately 60% boys and the rest girls.

Ultimately, their high-performance learning center has about 40 students, about half of whom are boys and half are girls. “They are invited to district-level tests,” Jain said. “If they perform, then state level, then national level events.”

shaping athletes

Different geographic regions offer different sports depending on the infrastructure available in the schools. For example, in Lucknow and Noida, children can choose between volleyball, cricket, football. kabaddi and athletics. Sports Development Centers operate six days a week and hold sessions lasting two hours a day. Depending on the school, sessions are held either in the morning or in the evening. Children are given T-shirts, shorts, shoes and additional nutrition in the form of bananas, eggs and milk.

In situations where a child’s parents are reluctant to let them participate in sports programs, the Foundation’s program managers reach out to the parents and let them know how good their child is at sports, and everything else. They are paid for, so they don’t need to do that. Worry about any extra cost.

The foundation has also faced strange opposition, according to Ranvijay Gupta, one of the program managers in Uttar Pradesh. “(Parents) tell us, ‘You guys are spoiling our kids by forcing them to go out and play. This is not our culture. We can’t let them go out and play.”

Also, he makes it clear that it is possible to change even these parents’ minds. “It takes time,” he says. “I enlist the help of other parents whose children are in the program. I tell them to come and support us. We have a second meeting, and a third meeting. After that, we can mostly persuade them, and they send their kids to us.”

Based on their experience, about 70% of the responses they get from parents are positive.

Gupta (38) is in charge of programs in schools in Lucknow and Noida supported by HCL Foundation. He joined Sportz Village in 2010 and moved to the Foundation in 2017. According to her, when she started the program there were only 5 to 10 girls in her SDC, but now she works with more than 600 girls on a regular basis.

“We have so far helped more than 450 children play in district-level tournaments, more than 100 at the state level and more than 30 at the national level,” he added. “It’s very gratifying for me.”

building role models

One of those girls is Rukhsar, a class 11 student in a government school. Girls Inter College Vikas Nagar, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. he is fond of kabaddi is a sportsperson and wants to represent India one day. At first, however, his circumstances held him back. Her father earns Rs 7,000 per month working in the private sector and did not support her desire to become kabaddi player, although so were his mother and three siblings.

The Sports for Change program paved the way for them to play by giving them the opportunity to train with expert coaches and sports nutritionists, as well as learn life skills such as leadership.

As a result, in the last six months, Rukhsar has been selected for the Uttar Pradesh Senior Women’s State and Junior Girls’ State. kabaddi Teams. He is also a promising athlete in triple jump, where he stood first at the district level.

“My parents feel much better now because I am traveling to different places, meeting new people and my game is getting better,” says Rukhsar.

The Foundation appoints specialized coaches to run its sports excellence programmes. The coaches should have played at the State level in their sport and should have a minimum qualification of Bachelor in Education. However, as the organization has grown, hiring good coaches has become a hurdle as funds have not kept up.

They are also training children as trainers from their program. Since the Foundation is relatively new, the first batch of potential trainers from within is just on the horizon. “Pretty soon, we’ll be hiring two or three girls from our program,” says Gupta. The advantage of having a home coach is that they’re already familiar with the program, and are from the same community as the kids. , can maintain the program and also serve as a role model.

off the field

Sportz Village Foundation has conducted several studies to determine the impact of its programs on education, health and empowerment. One of them concluded that children in about 390 schools supported by Ashok Leyland were more likely to attend school And a 10% increase in fitness levels was seen 18 months after the program started.

Another study with Gujarat Sports Authority 23% increase seen in female participation in after-school programs, two years after the launch of the program.

They also conduct an annual health survey, the most recent results of which claim that 95% of children have improved their fitness levels, 92% have improved their communication abilities and 78% have experienced greater emotional well-being in the face of challenges. developed capacity.

The Foundation has set ambitious goals for 2023. It seeks to engage 100,000 children in its programs and enable more than 1,000 student-athletes to perform at an elite level. Improving gender perception and inclusivity is another priority.

“There are still some gender barriers in our society,” says Gupta. “I think at the policy level, there should be an equal focus on inclusivity so that more talented girls can come forward without hesitation , participate in the Games and ultimately win a medal for India.”

Gill says, “Nutrition of athletes, especially girls, can be a way of creating role models for India’s children and youth in and outside the field of sports.”

Edited by Divya Sethu