MOU draft for Yuwa center given by government

Aims & Objective of the Sports Academies– To bring glory to State in the field of sports and to

inspire the youth to achieve excellence in sports. – To provide a vast resource pool of highly skilled

footballers at the national & international level as well as Olympic level.

– To obtain medals for State and National as well as at the International & Olympic Sports events.

Email from Jairam Ramesh

franzapparently you have put a condition in the MOU that the girls cannot play for jharkhand or something to that effect. this is completely unacceptable if that condition is indeed the case. i reviewed your matter with the state government officials on the 4th in ranchi.

Barriers for Girls Participation2. Lack of accountability measures in place for National Team coaches

‘Franz Gastler felt very strongly that the AIFF needed to put in place some form of accountability measures or reporting mechanisms for players who are on the National Women’s Team to enable them to report back about their experiences. He felt that at the moment this was a very big gap in women’s football and something that could hinder the progress of these teams as well as affect the welfare of the women footballers. However Mr. Das felt that it was not so relevant at this point. “I mean in terms of reporting back is something I don’t know whether that is relevant here.”’

(Source: AIFF’s Official Minutes from Round Table Meeting on the Future of Women’s Football in India: Organized by CEQUIN & supported by UNDP: 'Road map for Women's Soccer in India: Challenges and Strategies for Action’)

Hi Jairam, I have copied you to the email that you are referring to. There is no ideological issue at all regarding playing for an association team, state team, or a club team. The issue is child safety, and our responsibility to ensure that, which I know is an interest we share. Till this point, neither State nor National teams have an acceptable and demonstrable child safety policies or norms in place. Once that changes, we'll certainly be thrilled to once again allow girls in Yuwa to play on those teams. Two girls from Yuwa have been physically abused and verbally abused by the national coach of the AIFF junior girls national team. Two other girls in Yuwa, age 15, were brought to a train station by a SAI coach and then left there. Another Jharkhand SAI coach stole Rs 15k from his team's tournament fund and took off, leaving me to coach the team (in Chandigarh) and come up with cash for their meals. All these cases are documented, we've registered complaints, and in one case, under former Jharkhand Sports Director Anurag Gupta, action was taken. In all other cases, no action was taken. The MOU draft mentions several performance indicators for athletic success. We fully agree there should be indicators. However who makes it to the state teams and who doesn't has little to do with merit, and that's simply not a real indicator. I was asked to participate on a state selection panel where the chief selector came in with a list of seven players from the Deputy Chief Minister and informed the rest of us that these boys would be chosen first. Again, I believe our shared interests are child safety and youth development, so I'm sure we can find common ground on this MOU where we can achieve measurable social development with quality indicators. Looking forward to your thoughts.

Email from Jairam Ramesh

franz:dont be so paternalistic and morally superior. we are equally concerned about the safety and security of girls. the condition that they not participate for the state is simply unacceptable. take it or leave it.

3 Keys to investing in grassroots development

• Visit prospective partners – and partner’s partners.

• Demand accountability where the loudest voice is the kids’ – not office staff or sports politicians.

• Intensity is key: everyone has ‘life-skills’ curriculums on paper. Changing beliefs takes lots of time and lots of repetition.

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