Together with Australian Embassy, Centre for Social Research is set to pilot a program that will increase girls’ engagement in school sports as a way of building confidence and increasing the community and family value for girl children in alignment with the goals of the Beti Bachao Beti Bachao program. The Beti Bachao Beti Bachao (BBBP) program seeks to engender a mindset shift in communities around the value of girl children. It seeks to improve school enrollment of girl children and to help shift the economic and social value of girl children through social and behavioral programming. The proposed sports program promotes social and leadership aspects of changing the socio-economic value of girl children.
The implementation areas will be five districts of Haryana- Ambala, Kurukshetra, Gurgaon, Jhajjar & Mahendragarh. The project objectives are –
• Increase female student enrollment in school and university sports programs
• Increase district level opportunities for competitive play
• Expose female student athletes to role models
In this regard, on 30th March, the CSR team, headed by Dr. Manasi Mishra along with Ms. Namrata Mehta and Ms. Somya Bhatia met with Deputy Commissioner Mr. Hardeep Singh and District Sports Officer Mr. Paras Ram, in Gurugram.
The District Sport officer Mr. Paras Ram was briefed about the project “Sports for Girls: Confidence building and increasing the value of girl children in 5 districts in Haryana” – ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’
Mr. Paras Ram expressed his interest in the idea and execution plan. He was happy to know that something is being done for girls in the field of sports. He assured all possible assistance to the CSR team in implementing the programme. Mr. Paras Ram asked the team to visit The District State Hall of Gurugram where the trials of gymnastics were in progress.
Through this program, we aim to achieve the following outcomes:
- Girls and young women participating in this program will build confidence, team work and leadership skills through sports engagement
- Improved engagement in other school activities and academic performance
- Communities increase their support for girls through organisation and support for sports events
- Increased community solidarity and support for female athletes
- Girls health outcomes and physical strength improves
- Schools are better equipped to foster girls’ and women’s participation in sports
Centre for Social Research, firmly believes that sports is a wonderful way to make girls step out of their homes, and contribute to the nation in a positive way. We are very excited about this project, and look forward to sharing more stories and experiences of engaging the girls of Haryana in sports.
