Sports as a tool of education

A pilot project was undertaken to introduce a new concept of sports in the city of Calcutta. The project was initiated in January 1999 for a period of 24 months. The goal of this project was to create a social network in slums through sports activities and thus help to channelise the young people's energy into productive and creative areas. Along with technical support from GTZ, we were able to generate awareness about the new concept of sports among different sections of society - not only the beneficiaries but also among formal school teachers, policy makers, donor organisaitons, etc. The project envisaged to build suitable organisational structures to enable and improve implementation of social work with youth in specific slums through sports. We took up this work with great enthusiasm because we found that sports had tremendous potential of mobilising the most marginalised sections of society. An urban deprived child is in need of having legitimate means of releasing his pent-up aggression and sports has a cathartic value in this respect. Combative games help to sublimate certain instincts and emotions.