The Kick-off That Never Was

Society, Sports, Top story - By JF on Monday, June 28, 2010 - 15:57

We know David Beckham, we know Baichung Bhutia, do we know who their equivalent is in Indian women's football? Even as the whole country seems to be wondering whether the Indian football team will ever play the world cup, the women's team has been quietly going places. From under-13 to national levels, there is talent waiting in the offing. But they are waiting for much more than recognition -- facilities, sponsors, training. Payal Dhar finds out more.

Does the name Oinam Bembem Devi mean anything to you? Probably not. Not even if you’re a football fan. For Bembem Devi would be the equivalent of David Beckham for Indian women’s football. Since her international debut as a 15-year-old, this prolific midfielder has scored over 50 goals for India.

What? India has a women’s football team?

Would it surprise you to know that it almost qualified for the 1999 Women’s World Cup?

Women’s football has, even in top football-playing countries, struggled to make its mark. Worldwide, apart from USA, China, Germany, Brazil and a few others, the women’s game gets a negligible fraction of the sponsorship money, media coverage and promotion that men’s football does. In India the situation is particularly miserable.

Indian women’s football is administered by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), though the women’s wing isn’t as active as it should be. Within the country football enjoys fanatical popularity in pockets such as Manipur, Orissa, Bengal, Kerala and Goa, but outside these areas it is relatively rare to find women playing the game and in fact teams struggle to find quality players. Even within the popular region, the women’s game takes a backseat to the men’s sport.

What is it that holds back women’s football in India? Pulak Kumar Das, Sports Authority of India coach in Kolkata, has been working with women footballers for twelve years. He has coached under-13, under-16, under-19, senior, state and national teams. “There is raw talent in Indian girls,” he says, “but a proper system, scientific training facilities and infrastructure is needed.”

Women’s football can be said to have taken root in India in 1975 when the first Senior National Championships were played. While national championships for seniors, juniors (U-19) and sub-juniors (U-17) are conducted, the future of football lies in attracting young girls to the sport and the development of local clubs. The first state league started in 1976 in Manipur. The Calcutta Women’s League was set up in 1998 and in the late 1990s, Mumbai and Goa followed suit.

In early 2000, two of India’s most popular football clubs Mohan Bagan and East Bengal joined the Calcutta Women’s League, but the women’s football stronghold remains firmly in Manipur. The Manipuri women have been senior national champions since 1997-98 and recently picked up the 2010 title. Manipur’s supremacy shows through in the junior and sub-junior girls’ levels as well, with Orissa being the only team running them close.

Despite despicable facilities and the prevailing disinterest of the association, Indian women have been far from invisible on the international scene. In 1979 and 1981 India reached the semi-finals of the Continental Cup, and in 1979 and 1983 were runners-up in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. It does not help that India has to compete with the likes of Japan and China for one of the three World Cup finals berths allotted to the region. Despite that, in 1999 they lost on out on a semi-final berth on goal difference and therefore on a chance to travel to the USA for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

According to Arunava Chaudhuri, editor of IndianFootball.com, women’s football has not developed as it should have: “We have taken a few steps back while countries across Asia developed their women’s football,” he says. Things were looking up in 2000 when two players, Sujata Kar and Alpana Sil, signed contracts to play with a German club, but that petered out due to transfer clearance problems. Since then things have been quiet on this front. India is currently number 56 on the FIFA rankings, which makes it an uphill task to win one of the 16 Word Cup berths available for 2011.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) initiated the under-13/under-14 Football Festival in 2004 to bring together young children with talented young coaches and referees, and Indian girls have participated and done well in 2009 (U-14) and 2010 (U-13). The AIFF too has been conducting football festivals to get youngsters into the game.

The biggest hurdle for female footballers is that facilities and opportunities are less available to girls. Even in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai there are few academies that induct girls. In Das’s view, “The way forward is to harness young talent through school-, block- and district-level training centres that will select girls for residential state sports schools where they will get apart from education, full training with scientific infrastructure.”

Making a living from football is, of course, is out of the question for Indian women. This holds true for most sports in India apart from cricket. However, the local leagues and AIFF tournaments do help women gain entry to railways and institutional jobs.

Bembem Devi, talking to the website KolkataFootball.com, feels that the secret to developing a vibrant women’s game in India is for other states to follow the “Manipur model”. “Girls want to play football wherever they can,” says Chaudhuri, and it is a great pity that the system does not give them the sort of facilities and infrastructure they deserve.

Pulak Das notices that girls enter football through their own interest and do the best they can with the limited facilities. He also finds that there is good competition for places on teams. Some of the names to watch out for in his region, he feels, are Tuli Goon, Puja Karmarkar, Gita Das, Sangita Basfore, Seema Das and Saraswati Kharati, the latter two being under-13 players.

But interest, enthusiasm and optimism form only one side of the story. “Things are difficult as long as there isn’t interest amongst the administration to change things for good,” says Chaudhuri. “One would need a dedicated sponsor to come forward in support of women’s and girls’ football. Only then will we see the necessary development and implementation which can take women’s football in India forward.”

Payal Dhar is an author and freelance writer who flits between Bangalore and Delhi. You can find out more about her at Writeside.net.