ASA uses sport as tool to bring awareness among youth on IWD 2018

Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA) went beyond traditional celebrations and organised the International Women’s Day 2018 by giving back to the strong pillars of ASA: the female workforce.

The idea was to make children aware about the gender discrimination prevalent in society. The day started off with fun games, and teams were divided into mixed genders of various age groups which required a team effort. There was no prize for the winners, as the emphasis was given to having fun and learning.

The afternoon involved an art activity with the theme ‘Women Role Models in Life’ and children expressed their creativity. Soon after, an interesting activity involved both girls and boys to act and mimic the actions of the opposite gender which was important to break the inhibitions among children toward these gender issues and explaining to the boys the gender discrimination faced whenever someone tags a person ‘like a girl’.

The evening fun-games were organised exclusively for the women working staff at ASA. These games included mix of team-work, accuracy, balance and judgement. It also involved children teaching the rules of the game to the female working staff. The sheer delight on the faces of our female working staff and colleagues was a remarkable sight. The female students led from the front in getting involved and explaining the games to them and also playing along with them too. This activity aimed at bringing children and the women working staff together and making them empathetic of the fact that each member of society is important and each person has specific role to contribute to society.

International Women’s Day 2018 was a collective effort of the organising team, the administration and the children who led from the front and even the women working staff who participated in the games with much excitement and enthusiasm. Seeing the success of this event, more such events with participation of all members of the academy are to be planned in the coming months. Sports as a tool can do wonders in curbing gender-based discrimination, and awareness about these issues has to start from a young age.

[This article has been edited by the Operating Team.]

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