Sandy feet, chasing dreams!      

Every Sunday evening in the fishing village of New Podampeta, catching the last rays of sunset, a new energy hits the beach. A large rectangular stretch of the beach is carefully marked with bright-coloured cones, and 25-30 children and youngsters run across the sand, throwing and chasing what looks like a flying disc. Fishermen mending their nets and women drying fish nearby, observe the activity from the corner of their eyes. There is a mixture of curiosity and familiarity in their expressions. Occasionally a disc comes flying at them, and a child rushes to pick it up with a quick apology before running back to the game. 

Offence and defence teams face each other and the game is on!  A few minutes into the game, the offence makes a pass through the defence. A teammate latches on to the disc inside the endzone of the field and a cry goes out- ‘POOIIINT!’ Defeated defence walks slowly toward the opposite end…We start again, the next point may be theirs… 

‘Naakku Eyyu! Naakku Eyyu!’ ‘Throw it to me!’  Further south in Nolia Nuagaon, there’s a similar sight! A crowd of little girls and boys surround a facilitator with a bunch of discs in his hand. Here the excitement and shrieks last longer and some discs fly sharper. Noliya Nuagaon’s children are experts already! 

Goalposts lashed together from bamboo and fishing nets mark the stand at either end of the football field in Wandoor in the Andaman Islands. A tough fight begins between a group of young girls and boys in this much-awaited football tournament. The girls are determined to make it to the finals. Each new match sees new teams test each other, all keenly watched and cheered by the village Pradhan, ward members and parents. With the setting sun, and in reflexive ‘spirit circles’, competing teams gather, exhausted, energised but together.

Three shorelines, three communities but one unified spirit! 

In the few months I have been working on using sports for community development,  I have been tackled, skyed and blown away! It is exciting to see how transformational sports can be to the spirit of young people from small-scale fishing communities. It has offered much-needed safe recreational space for today’s fisher youth and children; a few slivers of team time, of play, of making new friends, and collectively thinking and talking about social, environmental and livelihood-related issues that affect their lives and communities. 

My team and I at Dakshin’s Sports and Community Wellbeing Programme have kick-started these sessions with football in the ANI – a huge hit with the Bengali, Ranchi, Telugu and Tamil children, and with the lesser-played Ultimate Frisbee in Odisha. The latter is like the football of the air but with different rules. Where it differs is that ‘Ultimate’ facilitates mixed-gender and self-refereed play. It has now become quite popular among groups in India wanting to use sports for development engagement with youth. Both are teamwork sports but the best part is how smoothly they adapt to the beach! Adding to the uniqueness of ultimate frisbee sessions are the post-play ‘spirit circle’ discussions where players share their personal experiences of the session.  This often includes things they enjoyed the most and the least, the scope of improvement, the challenges faced and an appreciation for individuals who they think played particularly well. These discussions also serve as a platform for us- facilitators, to ignite a spark of thought and initiate discussion amongst participants on relevant themes such as gender inequity (on the playing field, in their communities and larger society), adolescent health and well-being and climate change. 

Sports and games are also ways to build networks with people across the country and beyond. It is a pathway for young people from communities on the margins to gain exposure and imagine themselves leading more fulfilling and purposeful lives. We recently took a group of young girls from our frisbee programme in Odisha to a week-long development camp exclusively for women coaches in Hyderabad, hosted by India Ultimate and Ultimate Peace on the BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus. It turned out to be an experience filled with challenges and newfound freedom for the girls. For many, it was not only their first train journey out of state but also the longest journey without their families, their first time on a university campus, their first time being part of an all-girls sports team and their first time being coached by experienced women coaches! Initial nervousness with coaches and other players was gradually conquered and the girls from coastal Odisha were soon comfortable enough to both share, train, and dance together! Camps like these reveal ‘shy girls’ to actually be confident individuals, who easily make new and diverse friends across the country and abroad, and build collective memories for a lifetime! 

A sporting spirit can not just fill educational gaps but also widen the horizons of young people from marginalised communities. After all, we are in the business of unshackling aspiration… I sometimes hear from the children… “I would really like to be a teacher”  and “Will you teach me English?” 

I am convinced that to make a real impact in the lives of young fishers and coastal people, we must bring an intersectoral and holistic approach to wellbeing. Young people from fishing communities can be truly free when they have confidence, options, and the requisite skills to make informed choices about the kind of lives and livelihoods they wish to choose and build together. Interventions that factor in the power of sports have the potential to provide consistent support and the inner strength and confidence needed for a lifetime. 

Meanwhile, when people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them ‘I play frisbee on the beach with children from coastal communities’ and chuckle to myself at their puzzled reactions, not knowing how to explain all of the above thoughts in a nutshell. 

Ria Philip is a Programme Associate  with the Sports and Community Wellbeing Programme at Dakshin and believes that passing a disc around on the beach can open up a world of friendships and possibilities.