Concept has changed in rural Punjab, young girls pursuing football can wear shorts
A decade back young girls in several rural regions of Punjab pursuing sports weren’t allowed to wear shorts, says Jaspreet Kaur, senior grant manager at Rurka Kalan’s Youth Football Club (YFC).
Through the FIFA Foundation Festival, Jaspreet has travelled across the globe as youth leader. She was among the youth ambassadors at 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2022 FIFA World Cup.
According to Jaspreet, in the past decade YFC has been working tirelessly to empower young girls in the Punjab through football.
“In early 2010 when I was in school my parents didn’t allow me to wear sports kit, particularly shorts,” Jaspreet recalls. “I had to carry my sports kit and shorts in the school bag. I used to change my sports kit in school to take part in extracurricular activities.”
New beginning
Jaspreet, a post graduate student couldn’t make a big impression in the competitive sports but joined YFC in her village (Rurka Kalan) in 2013. She was a member of the team that started encouraging young girls to come out and play football.
One of the YFC’s projects—Sports for Development— goal was to guide school going students, particularly government primary schools, to follow some sort of physical activity. “The best way was to come out and play football as the village had good facilities for the discipline,” explains Jaspreet.
Seeds of YFC were sown in early 2000. The main focus was on boys, but football for girls was introduced in early 2010.
Jaspreet and her team members went door to door to convince parents that they should be liberal in their views and give equal importance to the mental and physical health of the girls. “We suggested to parents that the best way forward for the young girls was to step out of the house for outdoor activities,” says Jaspreet.
Off the field
Off the field hard-work paid off. Initially the number of girls playing football in the Rurka Kalan could be counted on finger tips, says Jaspreet. “Two decades later the number has grown manifold,” reveals Jaspreet. “Currently we have over 5,000 school girls from more than 25 schools from across three districts of Punjab under YFC programme.”
The first group of primary schools spotted by YFC did excel at the university level. “Several of young female football players also competed at the senior state,” adds Jaspreet. “At least 12 girls of the Rurka Kalan have represented the district in the state level competition in the first half of the season.”
The YFC U-17 and U-14 girls team has also excelled at the state level competitions.
Youth ambassador
As the youth ambassador at 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Jaspreet attended workshops that aimed to transform life through “Football for Good”.
“It was an enriching experience for a village girl like me to attend workshops in Moscow and Doha. I was thrilled to be part of the global projects,” says Jaspreet.
The post graduate student also attended the Youth Leader Programme in France in 2016. She also attended a week-long ‘Discover Football’ programme in Germany.
For her outstanding work, Jaspreet was also a recipient of the Women Exemplary Award in 2024.
Playing football has given the school going girls an opportunity to expand their vision, says Gurmangal Dass, founder and CEO of YFC.
“The girls enrolled under our project to play football have exhibited confidence to tackle on and off the field challenges,” adds YFC founder.
The YFC theme of —Girls Play; Girls Lead—has been highly constructive. “We plan to envisage Rurka Kalan model structure for other districts of Punjab,” says Dass of YFC’s future plans.
