Homeless World Cup Foundation and Slum Soccer: The India Story

Football may not be the first sport that springs to mind when we think of India, but Homeless World Cup national partners Slum Soccer have been using football as a tool of engagement with homeless and marginalised young people for over a decade now and have become established as a leading figure in the Sport and Development field in India.

"What started as simple weekend sessions in 2001, reaching out to 10 children, using football as a tool for social improvement and empowerment has bloomed into fully fledged football coaching camps, educational and healthcare workshops and societal development programmes, bringing a positive influence to the lives of nearly 70,000 men, women and children in over 63 districts all around the country." (Slum Soccer Annual Report 2011-12).


Slum Soccer and Homelessness in India

The second most populous nation in the world, India has a population of well over a billion people. 170 million people live on the streets and 260 million people (a group almost equivalent in size to the entire population of the USA) live on less than a dollar a day.

Slum Soccer engages homeless and marginalised people through football, providing them with not just the physical, social and psychological benefits of playing a sport, but with access to health and hygiene care and information.

Taking part in regular football sessions provides a simple framework for homeless people to develop a new way of life, with structures and goals - a platform for a better future.

When a homeless person gets involved in football they communicate and build relationships with others; they become teammates, learning to trust and share; they have a responsibility to attend training sessions and games, to be on time and prepared to participate. They feel part of something.


Here an interview I had done in July 2011 with Abhijeet Barse from Slum Soccer in Berlin, Germany.

Homeless World Cup team goes to India to deliver Football Coach Program

#FootballFirst will be developed with our National Partner in India Slum Soccer in association with the English Premier League's International Small Grants Fund.

Homeless World Cup works through an International network of 73 Partners and has developed #FootballFirst as a unique, modular coach education programme with flexible entry points to best suit the needs of our global network. It builds national partner's capacity to grow their programmes and gives players a step up into the world of organised football and onto the pathway out of homelessness.

Over a 16 day period 75 coaches and six coach educators will be trained to deliver high quality, regular coaching sessions, create teams, and run leagues and tournaments. Coaches use their own life experiences alongside the core coaching skills to deliver a strong social message to vulnerable and peer groups on how to avoid or deal with the difficulties they face - and skills gained in planning, organisation, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation are ultimately transferable to other areas of life, such as home and job acquisition or development of locally determined social enterprise activities.

The courses will be run in Nagpur (Slum Soccer’s HQ) and Chennai, with participants drawn from eight different cities across the country – extending the opportunity to play football to an extra 4.000 homeless players in the coming months. By creating a pool of coach educators to replicate the training wherever/whenever required the course will enable Slum Soccer to extend its programme and ensure sustainability in the coming years.

Homeless World Cup Foundation Director of International Development Deborah Ball said, "It is a great opportunity to contribute to the development of Slum Soccer's programme and offer opportunities to homeless players in India. By working in partnership with the English Premier League, UK Sport and Tottenham Hotspur FC we have been able to create a sustainable and lasting contribution to the development of grassroots football with Slum Soccer in India."

Homeless World Cup Foundation Director of Football Andy Hook said, "Helping to develop coaches and players at this level provide a strong base for the long term development of football in India which is very exciting, it has been great to see the organisation grow over the past four years with the development of a strong group of coaches and the introduction of the women's programme."

This is the third visit of the Homeless World Cup team to India.

VIDEO: Film about Slum Soccer

Below is a documentary feature film on the Nagpur-based NGO Slum Soccer, who aim to reach-out to the Indian homeless using football as a tool for social improvement and empowerment. Amongst other things Slum Soccer send the India representative team to the Homeless World Cup.

VIDEO: Interview of Abhijeet Barse (Slum Soccer, Nagpur) in Berlin

Over the first weekend of July I was in Berlin to cover a non-football event for an Indian television channel, but I had heard that a women's football tournament was being held in the German capital coinciding with the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany with teams from across the globe taking part.

Under the name of Discover Football this tournament was being organised in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Close to a 100 teams from around the world applied to take part and a high profile jury which included German FA president Dr. Theo Zwanziger and 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Organising Committee chief Steffi Jones decided on the participants. Teams from Israel/Jordan/Palestine, Brazil, Rwanda, Togo, Cameroon, Afghanistan and India where chosen besides a team from Berlin.

The tournament was played from June 27 to July 3 with the aim not about winning, but rather being interaction and a chance to learn from each other. The tournament was in a small field 7 A-Side format played in two halves of 30 minutes each.

Slum Soccer from Nagpur where the Indian representatives at the Discover Football tournament in Berlin. They had come with a team of women and girls from Maoist affected areas and for them coming to Germany was like a dream come true. I had the chance to speak to Abhijit Barse about the experience and Slum Soccer as a project back home in India.

Here the video of my interview with Abhijeet Barse (Slum Soccer, Nagpur)