Football
Football Delhi's 'Gift A Ball" campaign to bring more underprivileged girls into the sport
Football Delhi on Monday launched the 'Gift A Ball' campaign to encourage more participation from underprivileged girls.
Kiren Rijiju at the launch of the 'Gift A Ball' campaign in New Delhi (Credits: Outlook India)
The governing body for football in the capital, Football Delhi on Monday launched the "Gift A Ball" campaign to encourage more and more young underprivileged girls to take up the sport. In an event organised at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi on the occasion of International Women's Day, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju flagged off the initiative with former captain Bhaichung Bhutia, members of the federation and young female players in attendance.
The overarching idea of the campaign is to kickstart a movement whereby football lovers of the country can gift a ball to young girls in a bid to encourage them to play. The idea is to eventually turn this into a trend wherein more and more girls from underprivileged backgrounds are motivated to start playing football.
Bhaichung Bhutia lauded the effort saying this was a great opportunity to bring about 'positive change' in women's football, especially in Delhi. On the other hand, Football Delhi President Shaji Prabhakaran confirmed that a total of 5000-10000 footballs would be distributed as a part of the campaign in order to further highlight the 'unlimited possibility' of using football to bridge societal gaps such as these.
Speaking at the event, Kiren Rijiju reiterated his desire to see every young person have a pen as well as a football in their hands before going on to promise that soon there will be a separate women's league in Delhi, the likes of which are already underway in other states such as Karnataka, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh.
