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Bend it like the Alakhpura girls: Football empowers in a Haryana village (IANS Special Series)

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By Mudita Girotra
Alakhpura (Haryana), Jan 7 (IANS) On a cold and wet winter afternoon, some 30 km from the district headquarters of Bhiwani, tired boys buckled up to return home after seven hours of school. But for the girls, the ringing of the closing bell was a signal to don their kits and get ready to reach the sports ground for their daily football practice.

Girls playing football? And that too in a socially conservative state that has drawn negative attention for its skewed sex ratio and where girls are known to have been victims of gender discrimination, from womb to adulthood?

In about 30 minutes, around 200 girls gathered in the two big village grounds for the second session of their daily six-hour practice. Despite the drizzle and the chill, they played with skill and vigour — as well as determination. For, football to them is not just a game, but a way to make their dreams come true.

The game has won them trophies, scholarships and jobs and has helped the Haryana village stand out for gender equality and women’s empowerment in a state not known for either.

The story goes back nearly a decade. The then school coach, Gordhan Dass, was busy training boys for kabaddi, a traditional rural sport, when girls in the school began pestering him every now and then. “Indulge us in sports! We also want to play!” they pleaded.

“They wanted to play. So, I gave them a football lying in our sports room,” Dass told IANS.

Around 40-50 young girls thus began kicking the ball around for fun — and the physical activity it provided — knowing little about the skills or techniques of the sport.

“For around two years, the girls kept playing — and got better. They started learning the techniques by themselves and I could see them doing well in future if given the correct guidance,” Dass said.

That’s how the powerful and inspirational sports journey of a small village in Haryana began — a journey that has sent around a dozen women to the international level where they represented India with girls from other parts of the country.

Founded in 2012, the Alakhpura Football Club participated in the Indian Women’s League last year where Sanju Yadav from the village was the top scorer with 11 goals. It has two consecutive Subroto Cup (national championship for schools) titles to its name in the under-17 age category.

“There is a footballer in every house,” say villagers, taking pride in their girls. The same people had once criticised Dass for encouraging girls to play.

“They felt I was doing an objectionable job. Thankfully, my own daughter used to be one of the players. That was a very legitimate reason for many of them to show trust and support,” Dass recalled.

Sonika Bijarnia, who took over as coach after Dass was transferred to nearby Barsi, said: “We started with limited resources — very few balls, one ground full of pits and prickles. Now, the government is ready to install synthetic turf on one of our grounds.”

“Girls who have played at the state-level have got scholarships that helped in their advancement, consequently compelling their parents to believe in their game. Many of them have got government jobs through the sports quota,” she said.

“This life of an independent working woman was unimaginable for girls who knew their fate was confined to a bit of education followed by an early marriage. Problems for girls generally are many. There still is a long way to go for our girls,” she added.

“I wish to see them pull off this game like players in Argentina and Brazil. That is my dream.”

Bijarnia said that the village soon plans to hold a children’s football league under which there will be under-eight, under-10 and under-12 matches for children “so that they don’t remain mere spectators but develop interest early”.

Girls and boys will play together in these matches, she said.

Poonam Sharma, who has played for India twice in Asian Football Confederation (AFC) events — once in the under-19 AFC Championship qualifiers in Vietnam (2016) and then in AFC Women’s Asian Club qualifiers in North Korea (2017) — said everything has changed in the past 10 years.

“There was no aim in the beginning. Now we enjoy the game and there is a dream to do something for the village and the country.”

“I am pursuing my graduation but I won’t need to work. I am a footballer. My game is my priority. I don’t wish to take up any other job,” she told IANS.

Sharma, who has three sisters and a brother, said: “My father used to complain that he had four daughters. Now, when we are bringing glory through the game, he is happy thinking his girls are doing a great job.”

Balancing studies and sports can be burdensome. How do these girls manage that?

“Boys might feel some pressure. These girls don’t. The best of our players are the best of our students too,” said Bhupender Singh, one of the two physical training teachers at the school.

Ritu Bagaria, who played in an international friendly match where India beat Malaysia 2-0, said: “Apart from studying and practice, my daily schedule includes helping my mother with the household work and also working in the farms with my father.”

“There is no pressure or anything. I am able to spare time for all these errands,” said the 19-year-old Bagaria, who is pursuing her BA third year from the Mahila Mahavidyalaya in Bhiwani.

Bagaria, who has been playing football for the last nine years, said that while her parents were supportive, people in her neighbourhood used to make acerbic comments about her initially.

“But with time, they calmed down.”

(The weekly feature series is part of a positive-journalism project of IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Mudita Girotra can be contacted at [email protected] )

–IANS
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Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists

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PureWin Online Betting

The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index

Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.

The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports

Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.

All for the Tourists

The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.

“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.

To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.

Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market

With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.

Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.

Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.

Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting

Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.

Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.

The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.

If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.

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