Dribbling away to a happier life

SCSTEDS and CRY – Bringing about change through Football

Football is one of the world’s best means of communication. It is impartial, apolitical and universal. Football unites people around the world every day. Young or old, players or fans, rich or poor, the game makes everyone equal, stirs the imagination, makes people happy and makes them sad.

-Franz Beckenbauer, the greatest German footballer of all time

Bheemabhai had thought that her life in the Vysparadi Slum, Chennai wouldn’t change, just like her compatriots, 13 year old Ajith and 12 year old Uday. Various factors worked against them such as extreme poverty, rampant child labor and easy entry to different vices. This is a snapshot of the real stories of children from the Vysarpadi slums in Chennai for whom life had become a constant struggle, as they had to choose between dropping out of school to support their families or to go hungry.

The slum had school dropout rate among children of 43% between the age of 15-18 yrs and today a lot has changed owing to the efforts of the Slum Children Sports Talent and Education Development Society (SCSTEDS) along with Child Rights and You (CRY) who came into this bleak picture with the intent of bringing about lasting change.

The situation was very depressing but N Thangaraj, SCSTEDS founder, along with his brother N Umapathi, decided to form the society in 2000 to wean children away from any vice and promote sportsmanship through football. Slum football was used as a tool to keep children engaged to ensure that they stayed in school and were not led astray.

With the start of the SCSTEDS, club children were encouraged to go to school and a close watch was kept on the functioning of ICDS – Anganwadi centres and also the advocacy for functional urban health centres and PDS outlets were pushed for, even as children learned the rules of football. The unwritten rule of SCSTEDS is that “those who do not go to school have no place at SCSTEDS!” which is why even a night school is run in the slum.

SCSTEDS used peer-peer groups or Children’s collectives to inspire and encourage children to train for football and continue with their studies. The children meet regularly and discuss the issues in school and decide amongst themselves on how to solve them.

Their issues are of massive scales involving child labour, caste and gender discrimination, but are solved via the medium of counseling parents, keeping a watch on the functioning of the School management committees and pointing out issues to the SCSTEDS teams that could be brought to the state administration’s notice.

Change takes time, change also means being consistent and perseverant about issues and that’s exactly what SCSTEDS has been doing consistently apart from honing the sporting skill of the children. The success stories are sure to bring a lump in your throat. Bheemabhai represented the state team twice in the Junior interstate tournaments, while Ajith was selected in the under 14 Tamil Nadu state team, even as Uday represented India in the 2011 World Youth Cup (Homeless Soccer Cup) in Sweden.

And today the three are ensuring that they also continue their journey with the written word. While Bheemabhai is in class 11 and Ajit in 10th, Uday who has cleared the Service examinations with the Tamil Nadu police, will be pursuing his graduation externally.

If the story of SCSTEDS inspires you and you wish to help children like Bheemabhai, click here and do your bit!