“The entire village turned against me. People called me names and began to boycott us. They feared that if their daughters played football and broke a bone, who would marry them?” Mudi told ThePrint, fanning the coal fire beneath the mud oven as masoor dal boiled in an earthen pot.

Mudi was just 16 when she got married. Football, a sport she had loved and wanted to pursue as a child, gradually gave way to the responsibilities of married life. Years later, when her daughter Tania expressed a desire to play football, Mudi saw an opportunity to help her pursue the dream she could not fulfil herself.

“Those who cannot fulfil their own dreams often work hard to help others fulfil theirs,” Mudi said.

The village resistance did not stop her. She persuaded girls to play, and as the team began winning tournaments and bringing home trophies, the village became more accepting. Some players went on to represent West Bengal; others secured government jobs through the sports quota. For girls from poor tribal families, football opened up possibilities that had once seemed out of reach: an education, an income and a say in their futures.

For tribal girls who often have unequal access to education and employment, Mudi’s academy has given them a reason to stay in school, a route to financial independence and an identity beyond the wife tag. Now the villagers who once wanted to keep their daughters away from football are beginning to see it as a path to a livelihood. The restrictions eased.

Mudi now coaches two teams, a senior side and a junior one, with girls from the surrounding villages making up the academy.

“In most families in our area, girls are seen as a burden. Most of my students come from extremely poor backgrounds, so their parents want to marry them off early,” Mudi said. “But football gives these girls an identity of their own. They can build careers in the sport. Many have secured government jobs through the sports quota, while others have represented the state.”

‘It’s a place where I find my peace’

West Bengal’s Dumdumi village lies in a predominantly tribal belt in the state’s western region. Surrounded by paddy fields and broken roads, the village consists of patches of scrub vegetation and stretches of agricultural land. Narrow roads and muddy paths connect homes to fields, shaping the everyday lives of its residents.

Nineteen-year-old Rupali Tudu dreams of getting a job and helping her family financially. She returns from college, brings the cows home, finishes her studies and household chores, and then cycles to the football field by 3.30 pm.

“It’s my daily routine. I hardly miss practice. It’s a place where I find my peace,” she told ThePrint. “Tania didi has inspired all the girls in the village, both with her football skills and the fact that she has already secured a job.”

Tudu, the goalkeeper of Mudi’s junior team and a first-year History Honours student, points to her thatched-roof home. She wants to build a permanent house for her family one day and provide a better life for her parents.

“Till then, let’s keep working hard,” she said.

Lakshmi Priya, 16, joined the academy last month. For her, the inspiration was the trophies, glamour and opportunities that came with playing for a successful team from a small hamlet.

“When I saw the players of the senior team, it motivated me. All the villagers are talking about them, how they defeated their opponents, how our captain glided past the defenders to score goals. I want to become like them,” she said.

Priya, a Class 9 student and a defender in the team, wants to complete her graduation before trying her luck with the senior West Bengal women’s team.

“Maybe then I can secure a job too. I have not yet decided the subject in which I want to pursue my higher studies. But I will definitely complete my education and push harder for the state team. It will be an honour to represent my state at such a level,” she said, adding that her parents have supported her from the beginning and trust Mudi’s academy.

‘Many girls rely on my mother’

Mudi’s decision to start a football team gave her daughter Tania an opportunity she might never have had otherwise.

Tania’s interest in football began when she was a child, after reading about the sport in newspapers. Unaware that her mother had once been a football enthusiast herself, she gathered the courage to share her interest with Mudi.

“That was when my mother told me she would definitely form a football team with a group of girls,” Tania told ThePrint.

However, football training required at least 20 to 25 players, and Mudi insisted that her daughter bring more girls from the village.

“I told her that if she wanted to play, we would need more players. By lunchtime that day, Tania had brought her friends, and just like that my first recruits had arrived,” Mudi said. The next challenge was finding a suitable field where the girls could practise regularly.

“I would look for any open space where the ground could be levelled and take the girls there to practise. That is how we started, and after 17 years, I do not have any more space in my cabinet for my trophies,” she said.

The team eventually gave its members a route to financial independence. In 2019, the girls won the Saikat Cup, a district-level tournament. Following their victory, 15 members of the team, including Tania, were recruited as civic volunteers.

Tania said the sports quota was crucial to their appointments.

“The sports quota played an important role. Without it, getting these jobs would not have been possible,” she said.

She underwent a month of training before beginning her duties. She currently earns Rs 12,000 a month.

Her appointment was a moment of pride for Bharati, but what made her happier was that the other girls had secured jobs too. She said 25-30 girls she had trained had gone on to secure jobs, while several others had represented West Bengal’s women’s state football team.

“My mother was obviously very happy when I got the job. But she was even happier because the other girls from the team also got jobs. That brought her even greater joy,” Tania said.

The attention following the viral video, however, has not changed much in Bharati’s daily life.

“More people now come to visit me and my academy. That’s it,” she said. Her days remain much the same.

‘Driven off the fields’

The recognition the academy receives today was a far cry from the hostility Mudi and the girls faced when they first took to the field. Tania and the girls regularly encountered taunts for playing football in shorts and taking up a sport traditionally associated with boys.

“We were told that if we broke our arms or legs while playing, nobody would marry us,” she said.

Mudi was also accused of using the girls to run a ‘business’ and, on one occasion, was driven off the football ground.

“There was no opposition from within the family, but she faced several obstacles from society. People would accuse her of starting some kind of business using girls. Some made extremely hurtful and objectionable remarks, things that are genuinely difficult for anyone to hear,” Tania said.

While football gave the girls an identity and ambitions of their own, Bharati also helped those who had dropped out of school return to education, buying books for those whose families could not afford them. Others who were likely to be married at a young age found a reason to continue studying and pursue a different future.

“Many girls have seen their lives change after coming into contact with my mother. She helped several girls who had dropped out of school get readmitted. Some girls could not continue their education because of their poor financial condition. My mother bought books for them and helped them return to their studies,” Tania said.

Some of these girls are now working as civic volunteers, while others have represented West Bengal in football. Tania says that without her mother’s intervention, many would have been married off early, while those with sporting talent would never have had the opportunity or resources to develop it.

“Getting an opportunity to play football while living in a village is difficult. The fact that girls are getting an opportunity to play, while some school dropouts are also returning to education, is significant. Some girls have also become financially independent,” she said.

She hopes more girls from the team will compete internationally, saying football can make them independent.

“If they reach the international level, every girl will have the opportunity to establish herself through sport and become self-reliant. She will gain the ability to live independently and make her own decisions,” Tania said.

At home, Tania was a daughter, but on the field, she was also a player under her mother’s charge. Mudi says the two roles never fully separated.

“I was not just a mother at home; I was also her teacher,” she said. “I had to look after my daughter as a mother, but when it came to football, I could not treat her differently. On many occasions, I substituted her so that my team could win at the end of the game.”

A family effort

Sixty-four-year-old Shaktipada Mudi, Bharati’s husband, carries a bucket full of lentils and chickpeas, along with a bag of bananas, to the football field every day. He sits on the sidelines, watches the girls practise and occasionally guides the young players on maintaining their temperament on the field.

As Bharati blows the final whistle for the day’s training, Shaktipada arranges the food beside the field. The girls queue up for their share.

Shaktipada, who also played professional football in his younger days, was instrumental in helping Bharati sustain the team financially. He started contributing from his own earnings when he was employed with the central government.

“I used to work in the leprosy department in a government hospital in our district. I earned a decent salary and always felt that I should contribute something towards the girls. So I started giving money to the academy whenever I could,” he told ThePrint.

Eventually, the couple bought two plots of agricultural land to help feed the growing number of players. While one is used to cultivate rice, the other is used to grow vegetables. The academy girls work in the fields, helping the couple make the food arrangements more self-sustaining.

“When the expenses for their food were increasing, we decided to buy these two plots of land. It helps meet their dietary needs. The non-vegetarian food is usually bought from outside, usually thrice a week. We are planning to increase the non-vegetarian diet soon,” he said.

The team uses prize money from tournaments to support its activities and the girls. Shaktipada said that when the team travels to tournaments in places such as Bardhaman, Purulia or Kolkata, it earns prize money even if it does not win the shield or the cup. The money is divided into separate funds for the girls’ education, marriage-related expenses and the team’s requirements.

Nonetheless, food is not the only cost that has grown. Equipment, which the academy buys from Bankura, has become a steady drain on its resources.

“Earlier, an entire kit used to cost us Rs 500 for one person; now that cost has increased to Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200,” Mudi said. “My husband stood like a rock beside me, always supporting me. It would not have been possible without him.”

The initiative has also brought the couple into the fight against child marriage. Shaktipada recalled intervening in the case of a 14-year-old girl who was about to be married off. He said he alerted the local police station and urged them to prevent the marriage.

“We have been able to considerably reduce child marriage in our area. There was a case involving a 14-year-old girl who was about to get married. When I came to know about it, I contacted the police and told them that a 14-year-old girl was being married off. We try to step in whenever we get information about such cases,” he said.

Three years ago, another 16-year-old girl fled her home and approached the Mudis when her family decided to marry her off because of poverty.

“She came to us crying. She was a brilliant student,” Mudi said. “The girl’s family had settled on a match. Her parents were not listening to her. They said they had found a good boy and wanted to get her married.”

Mudi asked them to wait until the girl completed her college education.

“I told them that she should be allowed to continue her studies and that marriage could happen later. When the situation became serious, I took the help of the police. I took whatever steps I could to stop the marriage. But alas, a counter case was filed against me, and the family married her off,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.

There is no fixed timetable for the work that goes into keeping the team together and the academy running. Mudi oversees the training, while Shaktipada helps arrange funds, food and meet the players’ needs. The girls, meanwhile, balance practice with school, college and household responsibilities. For the Mudis, the effort is beginning to bear fruit, but there is still a long road ahead.

“Let your daughters survive, let them play. Educate them. Don’t marry them off as a burden,” the couple said.