Delhi slum kids learn to bend it like Beckham

A football tournament for children from Delhi slums has created an identity for itself in five years.

It's a cold evening but the temper is running high in the playgrounds of RS Junior Public school near Khan Market in New Delhi.

Strategies are being made, moves planned, and lessons being learnt from earlier lapses in the bid for a goal.

The game of football resumes, dust adds to the mist, but the little champions have an acute eye on the goal post and conviction for the goal "" Goal of Life.

For the past five years, Goal of Life, an annual football tournament organised by the NGO Kutumb, has been the lifeline for Delhi's slum children.

"Focusing on the sports side of education, we got into team building and strategising. Over the years, the initiative has grown and acquired a stature of its own. More NGOs, besides some companies, have joined us and the government schools too have evinced interest," said Kapil Pandey, president, Kutumb Foundation.

The December tournament had eight teams comprised of children from NGOs like Karam Marg, Salam Balak, and Nirmal Primary school, a government school. The tournament has got its own success story as well.

"Two of our members, who joined in 2002, when the tournament was kicked off, have now become trainers. They have trained around 100 children by now. This is a great achievement because it will encourage other children to do well," said Kapil.

For 19-year-old Hero and 17-year-old Lalit Ram, two trainers, sports has become a source of earning money as well.

"I have been training the students of Nirmal School for the last four months. I conduct two training sessions in a week and charge Rs 200 for each session," said Hero.

His outspoken counterpart, Lalit Ram, a class 11 student in a Pandara road government school, is quick to add, "I have been training the students for the last one year. I have provided training at the Junior High School in Noida and Yash Memorial School at Rs 250 per session."

Sharing his aspirations, Lalit said he is planning to form a football club for the children who play good but have not yet got a chance to exhibit their skills in any tournament or a league. "Also, we are eyeing the Delhi league. We will first train the children from our locality and make a team," he said.

The conviction of the children to play and perform has been rewarded from time to time.

Granting recognition to the role that Goal of Life has played in enhancing the importance of football in the lives of underprivileged children, the Premier India Football Academy sponsored seven children from the tournament to be part of a soccer workshop conducted by the Bobby Charlton Academy.

Also, the initiative has garnered the support of various corporate houses such as Lakhani Shoes, the American Soya Bean Association, Crayola, Hershey's, and UTI Bank.

Xansa India has tied up with Kutumb to coach the children in its adopted schools and orphanages. These children are also part of the annual football tourneys, says Gayathri Mohan, the Chennai-based associate vice-president, CSR, who was in Delhi recently to watch a football match being played by students of schools adopted by her company.