10/9/2018 Alakhpura, the Indian village that raised a girls' football team | Football | Al Jazeera

FEATURE / FOOTBALL

Alakhpura, the Indian village that raised a girls' football

team
Alakhpura FC is funded by villagers who over time have come to support the players
now achieving national success.
by Adnan Bhat
4 hours ago

Tamana is a 19-year-old midfielder and says most of the players on the Haryana state squad are from
Alakhpura FC [Adnan Bhat/Al Jazeera]

Alakhpura, India - It's 2:30pm and a road in Alakhpura, a village in Haryana state
nestled between cotton and wheat fields, is abuzz with dozens of girls, some on
bicycles, on their way to a football field next to the only school.

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The all-girl Alakhpura FC team, funded by contributions from villagers, practise

playing football twice a day - at 5:30am before school starts and after classes end.

"There is no let off here," says the team's coach, 37-year-old Sonika Bijaria. "We
practise twice every day, even on Sundays. And every member of the village makes
sure we have things we need in place."

Bijaria puts the players through their paces and picks her best 11 for the game.

The opponents are expected to arrive at any moment. Just as everything is set, the
away team's bus breaks down. They won't be able to make it.

Instead of giving her players the day off, Bijaria gets the boys' football team from the
school to give the girls the game they had prepared for.

Alakhpura, a village of about 2,000 people, has become a hub of young and promising
female footballers, many of whom have represented the state and the country.

The footballing revolution has helped Alakhpura form its own identity, different from
the rest of the state. Haryana has the worst gender ratio in India and crimes against
women are rising.

Girls and boys train together in Alakhpura [Adnan Bhat/Al Jazeera]

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Last year, the Alakhpura villagers officially registered the team with the All India
Football Federation. They also crowdsourced funds among themselves to cover the
team's expenses.

Sanjay Singh, Alakhpura FC's secretary, says whenever the team needs financial
support, the entire village comes forward.

"Some will give 100 rupees ($1.35), others may give 5,000 rupees ($68) depending on
what they have. We want our girls to play. After all, they have made us all proud.

"We have divided the responsibilities of the club among some of the villagers, but
every single person comes forward we need them."

The teammates first caught attention when they won the national inter-school
competition Subroto Cup in 2014. In 2016, they won the trophy again and in 2017,
reached the semi-final of the Indian Women's League.

Sonika Bijaria, 37 is one of two female coaches in Haryana state. She has been with the Alakhpura FC
since 2014 [Adnan Bhat/Al Jazeera]

Currently, nine Alakhpura FC players are also on the Haryana state women's team. A
dozen others have represented India at international tournaments.

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"When the state team selection take place most of the players are from Alakhpura.
This makes others jealous," says Tamana, who plays in the state's under-19 team.

Satbeer Singh is a wheat farmer and the proud father of 17-year-old Ritu and Nishu,
19, who are in the Haryana squad.

But before the Alkapura team's success, Singh says, parents would hesitate to let their
daughters out of the house alone.

"It was seen as a bad thing if your daughters were seen loitering around in the streets,"
he said.

The beginnings of Alakhpura FC

Goverdan Das, a former sports teacher at the village school, laid the foundations for
Alakhpura FC in 2008.

"When we started, I couldn't have imagined our players would achieve this level of
success without proper infrastructure or training," he said.

Das used to train male pupils. But one day, a few girls approached him and asked for
something to do. He turned them away.

"Girls playing was seen as a negative thing. So, I just wanted to stay away from it," he
said.

But the girls were persistent. Every day for two weeks, they approached him with the
same request.

Das finally caved in and handed them an old football. However, he still didn't want to
coach them.

"For the next 18 months, I stayed away from them. But the girls would come on their
own every day and start playing. I noticed there were improving much faster than the
boys' Kabaddi team, and I thought to myself, 'Why am I not giving them the same
education as the boys?' This is my job after all," he recalls.

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After a change of heart, Das took the girls to an inter-district schools' competition in
2008, where they were knocked out in the first round.

After a year of training under Das, the team won the competition.

"I have never played professional football, so I wasn't good at the technical part, but I
taught them the importance of hard work and discipline," says Das.

"If some parents said 'no', I would take my daughter there and explain to them that
there is no shame attached to women playing. And in fact, they should take pride in
what their daughter could achieve."

If you go to any house in the village right now, you won't

find a single girl at home. Their parents now push them to
play.
SONIKA BIJARIA, ALAKHPURA FC COACH

When the team had to travel outside the state, Das would take the village chief to
assure parents. Later on, his wife would also accompany him.

Das says it was important to make parents feel comfortable and bring more girls to the
playground.

Today, coach Bijaria says, every parent wants their daughter to be selected for the
Indian team.

"If you go to any house in the village right now, you won't find a single girl at home.
Their parents now push them to play."

Midfielder Poonam, 16, and her sister Priyanka, 14, are one of three pairs of siblings
recently awarded with a monthly scholarship of 2,000 rupees ($26.96) by the
government for achievements in inter-school competitions.

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The occasionally watch international teams like Juventus FC on the TV. But their
footballing idol is much closer to home - Alakhpura FC's 20-year-old Sanju Yadav.

Yadav who started playing football in 2010, has played for the national team eight
times and scored three goals in those games. "Sanju didi got a job. She also travels
around the world with the team. I also want to be like that," says Poonam, "So, we
practise every day to get better."

Coach Sonika Bijaria picks the girls' team who will face the local boys' team [Adnan Bhat/Al Jazeera]

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS

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