Yuwa uses football as a mechanism to empower girls in the poorest of communities in Jharkhand – a unique model that has worked with demonstrated results for more than three years. Yuwa brings girls out of isolation and into a positive team environment, building confidence, a strong sense of community and a model for self-improvement.

Yuwa approaches the community in a non-threatening way, targeting the group with the least opportunity, yet is the most powerful agent for change – young women.

The idea is to create an atmosphere that creates a sense of belonging that builds a girl up and makes her parents aware of a girl’s rights and value. With her newfound confidence comes a sense of self-worth, which in turn sparks her interest in her own education and health.

Problem

We operate in Jharkhand - one of the poorest, least literate, and most lawless regions in India. When a girl is born in Jharkhand, her life has usually already been planned out for her: She is isolated—if she is not seen working, she is harassed. She is illiterate—more than six in ten women here can’t read. She is married off—Jharkhand leads Indian states in child marriages. She remains vulnerable - an estimated 30,000 girls are trafficked from Jharkhand every year, making Jharkhand the top source for trafficking in India, according to the U.N. office of Drugs and Crime. The cycle continues. As a state Jharkhand ranks poorly in education among the girl child — while the ratio of enrollment as compared to boys at primary and middle school level is 0.78, against the national average of 0.85, the dropout rate among girls between Classes I and VIII is 67 per cent. In Jharkhand, overall literacy rates among scheduled tribes (the population that Yuwa targets), is 54% for men and 27% for women - considerably lower than the national average for scheduled tribes of 59.2 percent for men and 34.8 percent for women.

Solution

Through team sport, Yuwa provides a platform for young women to gain confidence to make a change in their world. Teamwork serves as a powerful force to combat gender inequality. In Yuwa, a girl quickly gains confidence to challenge the script others have written for her. Yuwa approaches the community in a non-threatening way, targeting the group with the least opportunity, yet is the most powerful agent for change – young women. The idea is to create an atmosphere that creates a sense of belonging that builds a girl up and makes her parents aware of a girl’s rights and value. With her newfound confidence comes a sense of self-worth, which in turn sparks her interest in her own education and health. Yuwa uses football as a mechanism to empower girls in the poorest of communities in Jharkhand – a unique model that has worked with demonstrated results for more than three years. Yuwa brings girls out of isolation and into a positive team environment, building confidence, a strong sense of community and a model for self-improvement. Through positive peer-pressure from teammates, captains and coaches, girls’ school attendance soars. When a girl organizes or joins a Yuwa team, through positive peer pressure she becomes a more regular student—players elect team captains, who keep track of school attendance. She also pays attention to her own health and to the health of her teammates. Many girls also attend daily study sessions at their Yuwa Clubs.

Example

A girl in Yuwa goes through a three-step process in developing greater opportunities for her life. 1. Out of isolation. When a girl organizes or joins a Yuwa team, through positive peer pressure she becomes a more regular student—players elect team captains, who keep track of school attendance, and many girls attend daily study sessions at Yuwa Club. 2. Flipping the expectations. The girl's teammates, team captains and coaches become the few people interested in her school attendance and performance. Whereas before, a simple excuse would suffice to skip school (i.e., my dress is dirty, today is a school holiday), positive peer pressure has turned attending school into an immediate priority. 3. Doorstep tutoring. A girl is now attending school regularly, but as long as she is attending a poor-quality school, her future still remains limited. Yuwa attacks this challenge by building bridge programs to prepare her for entrance into higher quality private schools. One component is doorstep tutoring, where a girl will receive high-quality English instruction within a short walking distance of her house. To encourage strong attendance, she pays a token fee of one rupee per day, and receives five rupees back on Friday if she attended all five days of the week. For other subjects, senior members from Yuwa become peer-tutors for younger girls. Girls are now prepared to test into higher-quality schools the following year, and may accept a Yuwa grant to defray the cost of admission and books.

Marketplace

For NGOs in Jharkhand, 'local participation' usually just means getting out of the way of the Land Rover. We are not aware of any other organizations in Jharkhand doing serious work to attack gender inequality, child marriage, human trafficking or girls’ empowerment. We are in touch with other organizations like Magic Bus using team sport for development, and we would welcome them to Jharkhand as both competitors and collaborators. What makes Yuwa different is a girl’s commitment to and ownership of her program. Attendance of the average girl in Magic Bus is 35 days in a year -- a girl in Yuwa comes 21 days in a month (252 days in a year). With girls at the helm, Yuwa is distinguished by soaring growth and stunning attendance by its player-students, and by each girl’s stick-to-it-iveness.