Sports for Empowering Girls
2017-2024
Sports education plays an important role in assisting girls in building their confidence,
agency, and social standing. CSR’s Sports for Empowering Girls program uses sports as a
tool to improve girls’ leadership, community engagement and economic value in society.
The Centre for Social Research (CSR) has been implementing the programme; “Sports
for Empowering Girls' since 2017 in gender critical districts of Haryana and Delhi-NCR
namely Ambala, Kurukshetra, Gurugram, Jhajjar, and Mahendragarh districts of Haryana.
In the year 2023, two new districts of Delhi-NCR, Ghaziabad and Faridabad, were
incorporated into the program. The program aims to address discrimination against girls
and women in accessing education and sports. Through our initiative, we have achieved a
sense of gender equality by sensitizing communities towards the merit of sports for girls.
Key to our approach is making girls economically worthy for the family and community at
large, which will help in building greater acceptability for them.
Our program is structured to reach out to potential girls’ sports players at schools and
motivate them to join their district teams. We have been able to conduct 5 Sub-district level
matches, 12 District level matches, and 2 Zonal Level tournaments during the
implementation of the program. Our ‘Sports for Empowering Girls’ initiative a number of
strategic activities took place such as: 1750 girls were enrolled, confidence building
measures were taken up with parents and teachers, 490 small-scale sports scholarships
were distributed, 910 girl players were provided with the nutritional supplements for 180
days, 3000 girls received mentorship from local female athletes, 14 MoUs signed with
schools in different districts, 500 student volunteer joined the programme in various district
level events. Local role model supported the programme and motivated girl players in all 7
districts.
CSR undertook rapport building meetings with district and sports authorities, organised
Speaking tour by National and International level athletes, provided Training sessions on
Gender sensitisation and PoSH Act by gender experts, psychosocial training sessions by
local doctors were arranged for girl players, coaches and stadium authorities, and District
level Sports Event was also organised and sports equipment’s were distributed among girl
players, which have been received positively by all the stakeholders.
Even during the unprecedented times of COVID-19, we were able to successfully complete
all the sports activities. Our continuous efforts helped us resume the nutritional intake for
500 girls’ Hockey and Volleyball players. We were also able to conduct two zonal level
competitions in the Gurugram and Kurukshetra districts. We concluded the program with
the distribution of sports equipment/kits enlisted by the coaches and players of all the 500
girls’ sports players in the five districts.
Additionally, the “Women in Sports” seminar, supported by the National Commission for
Women (NCW), aimed to foster a gender-just society and utilize sports for social
empowerment. Goals include developing skills and values like teamwork, leadership, and
respect, particularly benefiting adolescent girls. Outcomes encompass:
- Heightened awareness of challenges in women’s sports participation
- Strategy formulation for national sports programs
- Sharing of best practices, encouragement for educational institutions to promote sports
- Insights into infrastructure and equipment requirements, and;
- Progress towards a gender-inclusive sports environment.
Launching the ‘Sports for Empowering Girls in Delhi-NCR’ project in March 2023, CSR
focused on fostering gender equality and enhancing educational and sports opportunities.
Program components included stakeholder engagement and collaboration with local
authorities and sports officers, nutritional drives, gender sensitization training and
psychosocial support for girl athletes and comprehensive enrollment drives.
Our program garnered appreciation from the Haryana Sports and Youth Affairs Minister,
District Sports Officers, coaches, and players have informed us that the nutritional drive
and equipment have acted as motivating factors for the players to resume the sports
activities and they are looking forward to the next phase of the program.
This initiative strives to create lasting impacts, advancing gender equality and social
empowerment through sports participation. It signifies CSR’s commitment to realizing
positive changes in communities by amplifying the transformative impact of sports in
empowering girls.
