Dribbling past gender stereotypes in rural Odisha

Girls and boys in rural Odisha challenge gender norms through mixed football tournament, promoting respect and equality.

Be it 23-year-old Kusum Munda or 17-year-old Subhashini Minz, at 6 a.m. every day, they are at the local playground in their respective villages in Sambalpur, Odisha, for a game of football with boys their age. Even as they play wearing shorts and jerseys, no one bats an eye. It is a fair play of kicks and goals, a big step towards redefining gender norms.

Over the past nine months, 141 girls and 188 boys, friends and strangers to each other, have been collectively building a new narrative of respect and equality on the playgrounds in Odisha’s rural pockets. They have been training for the upcoming Samata Cup mixed football tournament to be held for the second year in a row, from November 11 to 16 in Sambalpur.

The first-of-its-kind tournament was conducted last year with 10 teams from Sambalpur district. This year, 20 teams from five more districts — Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Bargarh, Subarnapur and Debagarh — have registered their participation.

“A new junoon (passion) to break social barriers is slowly spreading,” says Rita Mishra, the founder of NGO, Patang, and the brains behind the transformative initiative. “We want to convince every boy and girl between 15 and 24 years to challenge and dismantle gender stereotypes to move towards an equitable society,” she says.

Since 2018, Patang has been reaching out to youth to make them understand that gender should not be looked at only from the women’s lens and that men alone should not be blamed for gender inequality. “Gender norms affect men and women equally, both are equal victims and need a safe and inclusive space,” Ms. Mishra explains.

Barriers in field sports, usually considered masculine, was where she looked at to address the issue. In the past six years, Patang tried mixed matches in hockey and cricket before striking it big with football as every village in Odisha has a local football team.

“The idea is to boost female participation in these teams and improve social harmony between the two sexes. We entrust the male players to bring in their sisters and their friends and play the game as team members and practise for professional tournaments,” Ms. Mishra says.