Palghar’s tribal children dribble their way to a promising future
City Couple Helps Underprivileged Students Ace State Level Basketball
Getting an answer out of Kavita Vaje is not easy. She likes to keep you guessing, then looks at her mother and flashes a coy smile. When she does speak, she knows her mind. “I want to be a basketball coach,” says the 16-year-old, aware of her speed dribble skills that made her a force to reckon with at the under-16 state tournament in Pune last year where she contested for her district Palghar. Her neighbour, Prakash Dighe (17), who has also pursued the big orange ball at state matches, is more matter of fact. “I’d like to be a sportsman but if that doesn’t work out I can always join the police force under the sports quota.” These four-foot hoopsters from the Ma Thakar tribe are taking giant steps into the world of slam dunk.
The journey to their hamlet Pundechapada is as beautiful as it is impossible. In the remote tribal habitation around 7km into the interiors of Jawhar, set against hills and a swathe of deciduous trees, there is no motorable road. But the rough trek pales in comparison to adversities that are a part of their everyday life—restricted electricity, limited water, no hospitals and poor connectivity.
Kavita helps her mother run a grocery stall that doubles as home and Prakash contemplates the next harvest with his family of six sisters, three brothers, parents, and hens and calves under the same roof.
While their realities haven’t changed overnight, this ball game is a tool for social intervention that is helping tribal children navigate new sporting or academic ambitions. For now, life is looking up for Kavita and Prakash who along with 15 other boys and girls from Gadge Maharaj Ashram School in Vajreshwari, an hour’s ride from their village, are about to start junior college in Panvel, a first in their family for many. The trigger for this transformation is an unlikely catalyst: Basketball, thanks to the efforts of Mumbai-based couple Radhakrishnan and Usha Sundar, who left their life in the US over a decade ago to bring a meaningful change in the lives of the disadvantaged.
They founded Hi5 Youth Foundation in 2015 to take basketball to the grassroots with a multi-level, four-year program. Kavita and Prakash are among the 150 tribal children at Gadge Maharaj Ashram School, a government-aided residential institution in Vajreshwari that the Foundation currently supports besides 1,400 others across BMC schools and a YMCA centre in Mumbai whose parents too are working hard to make ends meet. The foundation provides everything that a child picked for basketball coaching needs, including their jerseys, shorts and shoes. In just two years, 40 tribal boys and girls have made it to state-level competitions, representing Palghar and Raigad districts, while others have played at several zonal and invitational tournaments. “Kavita and Prakash belong to the first batch of basketball players to graduate from this school. Their families lead a cashless existence. Money was their only concern. To ensure that they continue playing as a team, we helped them avail the Swayam Yojana for tribal students in Maharashtra that got them collective admission into a college in Panvel,” says Usha.
Raised by a few steps over a cracked pathway and fringed by a tall wire mesh with hoops on poles and floodlights on the side, the basketball arena in the ashram is a lighthouse in their choppy lives. Yogita Halyabaswat and Akshay Borsa, both Class X students who had never heard of basketball until two years ago, can now rattle off names like Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan when quizzed about their idol. “They even want jerseys with numbers to match their favourite stars now,” smiles Vignesh Iyer, their coach who once captained the Mumbai University team. “We screen NBA matches during summer camps when we also invite city kids to spend six weeks here with them. It’s made a big difference. We’re seeing better grades, better discipline and they don’t fall sick anymore.”
These children who belong to Malhar, Mahadev, Kokhna to Varli, Gond and Katkari tribes, are a precious find for the Foundation too. Radhakrishnan says, “Their sense of fellowship comes from a lineage of hunting together in groups. It also grants them a mental toughness.”
City Couple Helps Underprivileged Students Ace State Level Basketball
Getting an answer out of Kavita Vaje is not easy. She likes to keep you guessing, then looks at her mother and flashes a coy smile. When she does speak, she knows her mind. “I want to be a basketball coach,” says the 16-year-old, aware of her speed dribble skills that made her a force to reckon with at the under-16 state tournament in Pune last year where she contested for her district Palghar. Her neighbour, Prakash Dighe (17), who has also pursued the big orange ball at state matches, is more matter of fact. “I’d like to be a sportsman but if that doesn’t work out I can always join the police force under the sports quota.” These four-foot hoopsters from the Ma Thakar tribe are taking giant steps into the world of slam dunk.
The journey to their hamlet Pundechapada is as beautiful as it is impossible. In the remote tribal habitation around 7km into the interiors of Jawhar, set against hills and a swathe of deciduous trees, there is no motorable road. But the rough trek pales in comparison to adversities that are a part of their everyday life—restricted electricity, limited water, no hospitals and poor connectivity.
Kavita helps her mother run a grocery stall that doubles as home and Prakash contemplates the next harvest with his family of six sisters, three brothers, parents, and hens and calves under the same roof.
While their realities haven’t changed overnight, this ball game is a tool for social intervention that is helping tribal children navigate new sporting or academic ambitions. For now, life is looking up for Kavita and Prakash who along with 15 other boys and girls from Gadge Maharaj Ashram School in Vajreshwari, an hour’s ride from their village, are about to start junior college in Panvel, a first in their family for many. The trigger for this transformation is an unlikely catalyst: Basketball, thanks to the efforts of Mumbai-based couple Radhakrishnan and Usha Sundar, who left their life in the US over a decade ago to bring a meaningful change in the lives of the disadvantaged.
They founded Hi5 Youth Foundation in 2015 to take basketball to the grassroots with a multi-level, four-year program. Kavita and Prakash are among the 150 tribal children at Gadge Maharaj Ashram School, a government-aided residential institution in Vajreshwari that the Foundation currently supports besides 1,400 others across BMC schools and a YMCA centre in Mumbai whose parents too are working hard to make ends meet. The foundation provides everything that a child picked for basketball coaching needs, including their jerseys, shorts and shoes. In just two years, 40 tribal boys and girls have made it to state-level competitions, representing Palghar and Raigad districts, while others have played at several zonal and invitational tournaments. “Kavita and Prakash belong to the first batch of basketball players to graduate from this school. Their families lead a cashless existence. Money was their only concern. To ensure that they continue playing as a team, we helped them avail the Swayam Yojana for tribal students in Maharashtra that got them collective admission into a college in Panvel,” says Usha.
Raised by a few steps over a cracked pathway and fringed by a tall wire mesh with hoops on poles and floodlights on the side, the basketball arena in the ashram is a lighthouse in their choppy lives. Yogita Halyabaswat and Akshay Borsa, both Class X students who had never heard of basketball until two years ago, can now rattle off names like Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan when quizzed about their idol. “They even want jerseys with numbers to match their favourite stars now,” smiles Vignesh Iyer, their coach who once captained the Mumbai University team. “We screen NBA matches during summer camps when we also invite city kids to spend six weeks here with them. It’s made a big difference. We’re seeing better grades, better discipline and they don’t fall sick anymore.”
These children who belong to Malhar, Mahadev, Kokhna to Varli, Gond and Katkari tribes, are a precious find for the Foundation too. Radhakrishnan says, “Their sense of fellowship comes from a lineage of hunting together in groups. It also grants them a mental toughness.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please do write your suggestions and thoughts.