Saranya Chandran tells the story a lot of girls growing up in Malappuram have to say. That while their district is so very famous for its love for football, you will notice it hardly has any girls/women playing the sport. Saranya too had played as a child, on the playgrounds in the neighbourhood with boys her age.
But when teenage came and she started becoming a woman, there came the boundaries — she shouldn’t be doing this, going there. She had accepted the ways of life, not realising she could question them till the Gender Neutral Football League (GNFL) happened and Saranya was touching a football again, after all those years.
“I had forgotten what it meant to kick that ball. I realised the value of what I had lost that day when after a long time, I played again,” Saranya says. She is today the coordinator of the Palakkad district for the GNFL. The idea for the league comes from Yuvasamithi, a group of young people mentored by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad to think in progressive ways. It will be part of their SCRIBES Sastra Samskarikotsavam (science and cultural fest). The state-level event is to be held on February 10 at Malappuram.
“We had an informal meeting in Alappuzha one day and we were discussing the topic Gender in Playground,” says Riswan, convener, GNFL. “This league is an extension of that discussion — to make our playgrounds gender neutral.” They didn’t just think of teams of men and women, but also members of the transgender community.
“There will be teams of 11, each having seven girls, three boys and one transgender. In the absence of a transgender, one more girl would be taken in the team,” says Jai Sreekumar, state secretary of Yuvasamithi. “We have already finished the district level at Kasargode. The idea is to create democratic spaces.”
As they realised, it has not been all that easy. “The challenges were many. For one, girls aren’t used to playing with boys, so there were doubts if they’d be overpowered. But with some training they are more confident. Another issue was that few from the transgender community are active in sports. They are more into cultural activities like music or dance,” says Riswan. The one face everyone has seen with the Kasargode team is trangender activist Esha Kishore’s.
“I have been involved with Yuvasamithi for programmes of gender minorities. But I was not into sports. I didn’t know anything about football. But when I stepped into the playground, I found myself enjoying it a lot,” she says.
Growing up in Malappuram she has always seen playgrounds where boys played football all evening. But she didn’t have the freedom to join them, they won’t let her. “There are a few in the transgender community who play. But they carry on as men when they play and then open up as transgenders only when they are within the community. Perhaps they are afraid they wouldn’t be accepted otherwise.”
The idea of the league is to change exactly that kind of fear. Shifa, coordinator of the Malappuram team, says how all this is new for girls and they are taking time to accept it as something normal.
“At first we couldn’t find any girls who played despite the fact that Malappuram is so famous for its love for the game. We had in fact interviewed girls who participated in the Kalolsavam and all of them said they loved football. But when we asked them if they have played, they all said no. That’s when we heard there is a girls’ team in Thootha, bordering Malappuram and Palakkad. So we got them on board,” Shifa says.
The Thootha team is called Students FC Thootha. The other teams are Vanitha Football Academy, Kozhikode, Kadathanad Rajah’s Academy, Vadakara, and Vanitha Academy, Vallikkunnu.
“There will be a friendly match between the Kasargode and Malabar Yuvasamithi teams. The coaches and referee are also women,” adds Riswan. What happens on February 10 is a declaration of the league. There will be more teams and more games happening through the year, across the state. “We want this message to reach everywhere, to make our playgrounds gender neutral.”
