Kabaddi: The sports star of development in South Asia
It’s high-paced, action-oriented and full of drama. The sport is kabaddi, which once used to be the learning ground for young warriors to hone their skills in ancient India. Civilisations later, not much changed except it became a sport that brought communities together to celebrate youth leadership and friendship in South Asia.
The sport now packaged in a slick format for a professional league that kicked off last month in India, has been making headlines all over the world for drawing big crowds and huge television audiences, making it India’s second most viewed sporting tournament after the T20 cricket league, IPL.
However, very few stories have analysed kabaddi’s role in community building, peace-keeping and youth development in the Indian sub-continent. And how this sport offers a unique opportunity to empower girls of this region. Here's my take on it.
A sport that connects the masses
In the words of Indian captain, Raju Bhavsar, kabaddi has been more than a sport for the invisible working class of India. It has not only helped youth to develop skills and bond in the rural areas, but has also aided in building confidence to fight the daily rigor and odds of a tough life that they go through.
In the Punjab region of South Asia, which borders India and Pakistan, kabaddi has helped in forging friendship between these two estranged neighbours from time-to-time. The region has hosted regular tournaments that have brought the youth of these two countries closer together. The matches are no less than a celebration of friendship, which sees massive crowds turning up to watch the youth of both sides putting forward their best skills.
In the Muzaffarnagar region of India that witnessed deadly riots last year, it was kabaddi that helped in easing communal tension by first bringing together the two communities on the sports ground and then assisting in building the friendship beyond the boundaries of the stadium.
It comes as no surprise that many development organisations in the Indian sub-continent use this indigenous sport for fostering community building and youth development.
A sport that helps women to become a strong gender
Being a contact sport as well as a team one, kabaddi offers a unique opportunity to empower women in the rural areas of South Asia. A number of development organisations have begun to experiment and use kabaddi as a means to make women "fearless" and "independent". I was reading the blog of a Canadian volunteer who wrote of her experience at Satyagyan Foundation in Uttar Pradesh. She says her perception of how she sees "sports in general" has changed, after what she saw how kabaddi had made a difference to the lives of women there.
With kabaddi being a big part of culture in the hinterlands, if women are encouraged to take up this sport and play alongside men, like in Punjab, it can really help women to move from the stereotypical image of being a "weak" and "vulnerable" gender, to a “confident” one.
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