Goalposts on a Farm: Story of Sanjay Pathak and his Sports Academy in Rural Bihar
A bunch of girls – all in tracks – cycling through fields in the wee hours of the morning might be an unusual sight to behold in rural India, but it is commonplace in Siwan, Bihar. As the girls make their way through the paddy fields, their mentor-cum-coach awaits them at his self-made training ground for another hard day of training. In a society where women are treated unfairly and not given their due, this motley band of girls seem poised to score the winning goal for themselves. Abhinaba Maitra talks to football mentor Sanjay Pathak about his dreams and his sports nursery that has been producing champions regularly.
Who are they?
Back in the decade of the 1960’s, a young centre half from the state of Bihar made quite a name for himself in the Kolkata Maidan (The Calcutta League). In a Career spanning over almost 3 decades, Chandeshwar Prasad went on to play for all the 3 big Calcutta Clubs, captained India on several occasions and also went on to become the sole sportsperson from the state of Bihar to get the Arjuna Award till date.
Fast forward to 2015
The place was Navelim, Goa and the AIFF girl’s nationals were under way with Bihar playing neighbours Jharkhand in the first match of the group stage.
Shyama Rani had given the lead to Bihar in the sixth minute before Jharkhand came back, Archana Kumari restored the advantage in the 35th minute but Jharkhand again equalised through Anamika kumari before the end of the first half, one minute into the second half Jharkhand scored this time to take the lead but Bihar was not to be denied. Shyama equalised in the 85th minute before Neha Kumari Clinched it for Bihar in stoppage time.
In the second match against Maharashtra, Bihar again took the lead before the half this time though Tara Khatun, Maharashtra did equalise in the second half but Bihar ran out winners with Archana Kumari again on the score sheet scoring two late goals to clinch it.
However it wasn’t rosy after that match as the third encounter with Manipur, who were tournament favourites, turned about to be a disastrous one as Manipur romped pass Bihar scoring twelve without any reply.
Finishing second, they qualified for the last four. However they were beaten by Odisha 4-1. Tara Khatun finished top scorer for Bihar with six goals.
Bihar getting ousted from tournament at the semi-final level wasn’t much of a surprise but reaching that level in the first place certainly caught a few people by surprise.
Present Day
In Siwan, Bihar, it is almost 4’o clock in the morning in Tara’s and Archana’s Native place (which they have in common with India’s first president Rajendra Prasad) [1] , as a man in a tracksuit makes his way towards the paddy field about half a kilometre from his house in Lakshmipur village.
Wait. A man wearing tracks on a paddy field doesn’t sound quite right does it?
As he approaches the field a small pocket of plush green grass with goalposts on it emerges almost a like hidden treasure, priceless obviously.
What does he do here? Does he teach? Is he a coach? Meet Sanjay Pathak, humble owner of that small hamlet of a land and the small sports academy that comes with it.
“I normally let my students play whatever they like, I merely push them, give them some tips here and there but it is their urge for excellence ultimately which prevails.”
Sanjay starts his day by getting things in place, fixing the nitty-gritties on the field as he awaits his students to arrive.
As the sound of a dozen cycles rises from the horizon, Sanjay sets his sight on another day of drills, running and playing and letting these girls from rural Bihar have a chance at making something of themselves.
Tara and Archana have more than their native place in common. They are both fine products of Sanjay’s coaching and mentorship and it’s a still a long way for them to go, if they want to emulate anything close to C Prasad’s stint as a player, but Sanjay has certainly put them in the right direction.
Sanjay Pathak and his girls attending their regular practice sessionTaking off
“When my father died, I was the eldest sibling in the family, so financial responsibility of the family rested on me.”
Sanjay was in his second year in College when his father passed away. After completing his BA in economics from Patna University, he joined his father’s job on government recommendation, and in a twisted tale of fate this would bring Sanjay close to what he would want as a life for himself.
“Sports always attract you as a kid but many like me don’t get to play at the highest level.”
Pathak, 43 now, used to be play as a goalkeeper at school level but never got the chance to play at the state or national level due to economic constrains or rather societal barriers with studies being the bigger priority than anything else.
As his story moves forward in 2009, Pathak moved to Adarsh Middle School in Mhirwa block in Siwan district as a teacher of Physical Education where his life would take a turn for …
Well let’s just see what happens
In 2010, to promote physical education and sports among school children, the Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) was organized under the aegis of the sports ministry, girls from Adarsh Middle School including Putul Kumari and Tara Khatun participated in those games and surprised everyone including Pathak himself by doing remarkably well. In athletics, they won gold medals in 100m and 200m races and also excelled in team sports such as hockey and football.
If these girls can perform so well with minimum training, what wonders might they achieve if coached properly.
It was like destiny beckoning Pathak and giving him a chance to live his dreams through these girls who had performed so outstandingly well.
“Main Challenge was obviously to convince the parents”
Pathak wanted to train these girls without hampering their hours in school but wasn’t sure if their parents would give permission, so he started going from door to door urging them to let their daughters train with him. On the face of it Pathak was neither a trained coach nor did he have actual experiences beforehand. It was his zeal more than anything which had always helped him prevail. Here also, he was turned down by some. On the other hand some accepted his proposal. Pathak recounted that everybody wanted to be proud of their children in one way or the other – so the only part that needed emphasizing was that sports was the best possible way to glory. Pathak’s initiative started with two girls, and soon grew to fifteen and then almost 30 girls from standards seven, eight and nine. Pathak realized he really had something special here and it needed to be nurtured in a proper way.
Accelerating
Pathak’s knowledge of the game from his early days of playing and watching it on television was enough to get the training started. What the girls needed most of all was encouragement. The team started out training on a patch of government land beside the school. Pathak knew that a strict routine and proper diet would go on to create a good foundation for the kids. This approach started paying dividends early on, as the girls started performing well in intra-school championships and district-level tournaments. The boys, however, were a different story. Their taste shifted to more lucrative sporting opportunities like cricket. Pathak started focussing more on the girls. He was able to form an all-exclusive girls’ team called the Rani Laxmibai Football Club licensed under the Bihar Football Association. This provided the girls further opportunities to compete against professional clubs within the district and the state. In 2010, Tara Khatun, one of Pathak’s students, got selected for the State U-19 team to play in the 56th Annual School Games Federation of India Championships in Jammu. This was the first time Khatun was travelling beyond her village. Naturally, her parents were a bit apprehensive. But Pathak knew that these girls were destined for greater things.
Tara played as a striker that year, but Bihar got knocked out in the quarterfinals as its neighbouring state Jharkhand triumphed in the U-19 category. It was a good experience for Tara. She came back with enhanced knowledge of football as well as a taste of the world beyond her village. Soon, others followed. Putul Kumari, a promising young defender, got selected in the Bihar U-16 team to play in the AIFF State Championship held in Haldwani. After her good performances there, she was even selected for the Indian U-16 team scheduled to play the AFC U-16 Championship in Jordan. Regrettable, she faced some “bad luck” [1] according to her father, Ravindra Prasad. Her passport was not yet ready. So she was not able to make it to the team. In 2011, four of Pathak’s pupils got selected to play for the state team at the State Championship in Manipur. Bihar finished runners-up to the host state that year.
Tara eventually became the first of the girls to go abroad and play. She was part of the national team that participated in the School World Cup in Bordeaux, France, organised by the International School Sport Federation. However, India couldn’t get past the group stage that year. The team performed dismally, but it proved to be a good experience for the footballers. Pathak’s sheer determination to give his students a fruitful life was nothing short of a miracle. His girls had now started dreaming bigger and better.
Bumps on the way
Every success story always has its fair share of detractors. As mentioned earlier, Pathak was using a strip of government land near the school for training purposes. However, as the girls started making a name of themselves, local boys started regularly assembling around the area, using lewd languages and harassing the players. “This is the government’s land, not your father’s” some would shout at Pathak.[1]
However, use of the land was a negligible issue compared to the behemoth of patriarchy that opposed Pathak and his girls. Girls were apparently not supposed to go out of their houses wearing tracks or shorts in rural Bihar. According to Pathak, this situation was paradoxical. Most of these girls came from a poor economic background, with household incomes barely above the BPL (below poverty line) category. Usually a girl would spend most of her day in a kitchen doing daily chores and would get married off as early as possible. A study done by the International Centre for Research on Women in 2015 states that the state of Bihar has the highest percentages of child marriages in the entire country. [5]
However, female literacy in Bihar has increased by almost 20% in that last decade. This has had two interesting outcomes. One, families (even if in small numbers) have started realising the importance of female education; two, paradoxically enough, this has led to amplified voices against girl’s freedom. Siwan is no different from the other parts in Bihar and the rest of rural India caught in this ideological battle between patriarchy and modernity.
Pathak has been in this fight almost all by himself. Needless to say his struggle to get these girls out of their homes and dreaming big has been by no means easy. He has never been in the mood to bow down to hooligans. Pathak tried lodging an FIR in the local police station against the daily ruckus created by the anti-social elements, but it came to no avail. With the police unable or rather unwilling to do anything, Pathak decided to change the practice ground.
Pathak’s family is still an agricultural one. They have some land near the village of Lakshmipur village. So, he thought of utilizing some of that land for his training facility. He decided to utilize one acre of it, and started mowing it down to make it a proper field. Thus began his most ambitious project—the Himsehwar Khel Vikas Kendra.
Goalposts were set up, grass was mowed down to playing level, and the team started practicing. A football field in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by acres of mustard and paddy fields! But this was home for Sanjay. He found peace here, and so did his students. Again they would march on to greater heights.
Smooth Sailing
Success had a strange way of following Pathak. His students, Tara Khatun and Archana Kumari got selected for the Bihar U-18 team for the AIFF Girl’s Nationals 2015 held in Goa. Bihar qualified through the preliminaries, thrashing Madhya Pradesh 8-0 and Himachal Pradesh 7-1, with Tara and Archana scoring four and two goals, respectively. In the group stages, Bihar was pitted against neighbours Jharkhand as well as, Maharashtra and tournament-favourites, Manipur.
Bihar was ousted in the semi-finals but not before giving some eye catching performances especially from Tara and Archana.
In the same year Nesha Kumari got selected in the U-14 national team for the AFC Under-14 Regional Championship in Nepal. India had no problems reaching the semi-finals by thrashing Bhutan 12-0 and drawing with Bangladesh 1-1. However, they were ousted 1-0 by Nepal in a tightly played semi-final. They were also scheduled to play in the third place playoffs. However, that had to be called off due to the terrible earthquake which shook the Himalayan country that year. Bangladesh eventually went on to win the tournament beating Nepal in the final.
In 2016, Nesha again got selected for the Regional Championship U-14 team for the South and Central zone in Tajikistan. This time, India lost to Bangladesh 4-0 in the final match.
In 2016, the AIFF launched the Indian Women’s Football League on the lines of the ISL as a platform for the woman’s game to develop. Putul and Tara are currently staying and training in Mumbai to play in the new league.
Pathak and his girls have received many awards from the Bihar Government and the Bihar State Sports Authority for their incredible achievements in the face of humongous obstacles.
A proud teacher is holding his students’ reewardsHolding Steady
TV is still a luxury but the Zidanes and the Ronaldos are still idolised here like in many parts of the world. Football isn’t a very popular sport in the state and so chances of excelling is also limited. Pathak over the years has very subtly not only taught these girls to play against teams and opponents but has help built up an amount of dignity and self-confidence that now allows them to take adventurous strides without thinking twice like their famed idols.
“When they say that they have gone so many places to play, some throughout India and even abroad it makes me extremely proud”
Siwan boasts of the highest amount of remittances from abroad [1] in the state and although it’s not a given that this will help in any way uplift the face of the district, the primitive gun culture has not changed much. On a contrasting note, Pathak with a monthly salary of little more than 40 thousand, adding a new dynamics to sports in the district shows that proper vision and planning can indeed bring changes.
“I’d rather invest my money in these girls than go on a pilgrimage”, says Pathak. And invest he has. He has spent most his money and almost all his time on this, and does not have an ounce of regret.
According to Pathak, the government and the administration have rarely come forward to help. Most of the money that goes into the maintenance of the facilities (including sponsoring the kits and equipment) come mostly from his own pocket. He does get occasional donations from well-wishers as well.
The Academy now features changing rooms for the girls as well as a small canteen. Not sure of the amount of nutrition the girls were getting from their meals at home, Pathak decided to take ownership of it and started providing the girls nutritious food with the help of some generous donations. The travelling expenses for the girls are also handled by Pathak himself, with the State Football Association providing very little in terms of financial help.
Some things have improved, though. People now see Siwan in a different light than before. Earlier, the district was only famous for being the home turf of controversial MP Mohammad Shahabuddin. Nowadays, it is also known as the home of incredible footballers.
Fathers now feel proud of their daughters’ achievements. Tara’s father, who runs a small cycle repairing shop, says “I feel proud when I see my daughter tearing through the opposition defence to score goals for her team,” [2] He wants her daughter to be the master of her own fate. Similar thoughts were expressed by Putul’s father, who runs a sweet shop. He says he is confident that his daughter “will go to a foreign land to unfurl the tricolour one day.” [1]
The finish line and beyond
Recognition hasn’t completely eluded Pathak either. He is now a D-licensed coach under the AIFF and that has given the impetus to make the facilities even better.
Pathak wants it to be the best sports academy in the land, but he does admit that there’s still a long way to go to achieve that. Pathak is also contemplating setting up a trust for the academy in order to help people who want donate to his cause.
There are also a number of upcoming young players that are to be watched out for, he declares. He is certain that his younger students like Kaajal Kumari and Shruti Kumar will be representing the national team very soon. [1]
The journey has been eventful and an uphill battle, but Pathak wouldn’t have it any other way. “I would rather utilize my time teaching this girls than chatting idly in some tea stall,” he declares. Indian football is being changed by a small team from rural Bihar—one goal at a time.
References
[1] The Hindu
[2] The Telegraph India
[3] abcd Football
[4] Kolkata Football.com
[5] International Center For Research on Women
About Abhinav Maitra
A football enthusiast and an ardent Manchester united fan, keen on writing about human behaviors and the power of the beautiful game to bring in subtle changes and happiness in people’s lives
