Parikrma Humanity Foundation—an NGO that runs English-medium schools for underprivileged children in Bengaluru is bringing on football frenzy, interspersed with CEO ‘footie’ display along with ‘equality in education’. Established in 2003, it ignites hope among children from four orphanages across 70 slums. Echoing on level playing competencies is Shukla Bose, founder and CEO of Parikrma, who, having abandoned her highflying corporate career, is thriving to break the vicious cycle of poverty among slum kids by educating them. With an objective of creating equal opportunities for these children, the NGO provides education via English medium CBSE schools and also endeavours to support their overall development through sports like football, taekwondo and athletics. When Parikrma realised that their football team was not being invited to mainstream inter-school tournaments, it created a school level tournament and invited even those schools that had never ever invited them in prestigious inter-school meets. The result speaks aloud. The 6th edition of U-16 boy’s Football Tournament of the ‘Parikrma Champions League’, 2016 saw 16 teams; 13 of Bengaluru’s best Under-16 teams, a team from Kerala and two from Goa battling for the cup. Parikrma shared a slice of the ‘footie’ frenzy and corporate bearings on the recently concluded championship and the ethos behind the event...
“Can you believe that we have young people from the slums doing their Bachelors in Hotel Management? It has taken us 13 years to change their quality of life and give them the confidence to compete on equal terms”, says Shukla Bose, founder and CEO of Parikrma. Currently about 41 children from Parikrma are in various colleges pursuing engineering, medicine, hotel management, art, science, nursing and commerce. And competing they definitely are on and off another playing turf that syncs sports within academia.
“While we are proud to present the 6th edition of Parikrma Champions League, Parikrma also believes that sports play a significant role in the all- round development of children in schools. Today, the field of sports is offering attractive career options as well. The fact that we have been running this highly successful and popular football tournament for six years goes to show our interest and support for the game of football.”
The NGO, in its belief that ‘no child slips through the cracks’, whether it be academic excellence or not, have formulated a program called the ‘Parikrma Genome’, where they use sports, art and music to build self-esteem and confidence. This helps children to integrate with the mainstream. A way has been to include children from the slums by bringing in ‘sports into communities’ concept.
“We look at sports not just as a co-curricular activity but have integrated it into the curriculum because we believe that sports is a way of life. Through sports, we drive social messages like gender equality and social equality. We also recognise sports as a very good career option for children who have the talent and it need not always necessarily be in the pursuit of university education. We also use sports as therapy for vulnerable children by giving them a purpose in life. The success of the football league stands such that not just Bangalore but, many school across the country mark their calendars for participating in the event.”
Parikrma constituted its Parikrma Champions League ‘Equality Cup’ with the main objective of creating an environment of fairness and transparency while also bringing in professional rendering of the sports. They have modelled the concept to provide an equal platform of this sporting encounter at the international, mainstream and also for schools run by the Government, to pitch for the cup. “We take pledges from coaches to teach their children to play with dignity and honesty. We are the only tournament that has a bone verification test to ensure there is no misrepresentation of age in the tournament. We also have spotters from Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA), Bangalore District Football Association (BDFA) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to come and scout for talent to play in the national and even the junior World Cup. As regards the tournament, “Every year, we field United Parikrma Team (footballers across our four schools) and they do fight for the ‘Equality Cup’. We have a very good football program headed by AFC (Asian Football Confederation) certified coaches and our team have many a times been the champion in tournaments. However, we have yet to win the Parikrma Champions League trophy ourselves and this goes to show the level of our games.”
For Parikrma, girls share equal priority on field too. “We at Parikrma are all for the inclusion of girls in football. In fact, we even have our own Under-12 girl’s football team who recently took part in the Vibgyor Inter School football championship and became the Champions. We would love to have an ‘Equality Cup’ just for our girls but we do face a few difficulties in finding the same level of participation from other schools; at the same time to be able to partner with corporates who would support this cause does become a challenge. But, this does not stop us from ensuring that girls do get to participate in the Parikrma Champions League and for the last three years, we have had a Parikrma mixed match and this year one of our students, Spurti (Grade 7, Parikrma) even scored a goal. We are the only school to have a mixed team so far and we really hope that someday with the support of the other schools, we are able to transform from a girl’s exhibition match to a Parikrma Champions League for girls,” said Shukla Bose.
“Through sports we drive many social messages. We also recognise sports as a very good career option for children who have the talent”
A lot goes behind making the ‘Equality Cup’, worth coveting for. “We work closely with BDFA and KSFA and monitor school performances over the year and invite only those schools that have made the mark. In the past, our football coaching program was only confined to Parikrma students but from the year 2016, we have signed a three year contract under the ‘Coaches across Continents’ programme wherein we will be training coaches and players across schools to create social impacts through football. ‘Coaches across Continents’, is a global leader in the sport for social impact movement and their aim is to bring about social change through football. Under the programme five coaches from across the globe will be conducting a five day training workshop for Parikrma’s coaches and coaches from other schools across Bangalore on how to take sports into communities and improve the quality of life in the respective communities, while also enhancing their career plans.
The scale of the tournament is run as a professional league tournament, which requires Parikrma to care of all out- station players as well; looking into their travel and hospitality. “We take care of all schools for the three days of the tournament. We also seek corporate sponsors who want to encourage grassroots football and who believe equally in the level of the tournament.” This year, the tournament moved a notch higher as Parikrma introduced a CEO exhibition match on the final day. Spotters identified the most skilled players from across the 16 teams to form a ‘Parikrma All-Star’ team that took on CEOs of Bengaluru’s leading corporate companies in a 20-minute exhibition match. “Getting corporates to get out of their boardroom and come to the field is a way of inculcating a sense of leadership and management training through sports.” Participating in the exhibition match this year were Pradipta Banerji, Vice President of Human Resources at CGI India and South East Asia, Pradip Dutt, Managing Director of Synopsys India, Mike Holland, Chief Executive Officer of Embassy Office Parks and Georg Graf, Freudenberg Group Regional Representative in India , along with Dhruv Nagarkatti, CEO, LeapStart (Fitkids) and Sanjay Dora, Chief Operating Officer, Group Hubs at ANZ. With 11 of Parikrma students having played at the state levels, they also had one student, Bhanu Prakash who was selected to go for the Nationals in Delhi and another child Guru, who was invited to Argentina for a football coaching camp. With nationally certified coaches headed by Ravi Babu, Benedict, Sarvana, Gopal and Shiva, Parikrma steadies its course on and off the playing field.
By Sangeeta Ghosh Dastidar
