Football knows the heartbeat of Bengal the best! On Sunday 19th January while there was a derby match going on between East Bengal and Mohanbagan clubs, not very far from there in North 24 Parganas, State Disability Football took place at Narayani Sporting Club Grounds. Athletes with disabilities from 9 districts namely Purulia, Bankura, Nadia, Birbhum, 24Parganas (North), 24 Parganas (South), Kolkata, Murshidabad, and Medinipur participated in the tournament. 24 Parganas South won this years¡¯ cup with their player Sourav Das taking the best player award with 4 goals. Goalkeeper Priyabrata Sadhu, won the best goalkeeper award of the tournament with more than 9 saves.
Disability Football or 7-A-Side Football is a Paralympics sport from 1984. Though originally for people with cerebral palsy, many countries have included people with locomotor disabilities in the game. One of the uniqueness of disability football is the inclusiveness of multiple disabilities in the game. While India still now couldn¡¯t qualify for football in Summer Paralympics ever but from 2012 disability football was introduced in parts of India.
In West Bengal too with individualistic approach para-athletes started playing the game. In the 2019 Civilian Welfare Foundation, a non-profit organization working in disability sports from 2011 along with Five Mad Men, a sports bar at Sector 5, Kolkata came together to structure Disability sports systematically in Bengal. They organized screening and conditioning camps in Kolkata and Birbhum with Technical Coaches, Physiotherapists and Sports Psychologists and picked up 22 athletes. The idea is to build a coterie of 50 systematically trained players from grassroots including female athletes with disabilities. On January 19, the State Disability Football Tournament was arranged to expose these newly trained players with the old footballers with disabilities.??
While Sukur Ali, an experienced player who plays football from 2012 accepted the fact that football gave him a purpose in life which helped him free himself from addictions and bad habits, Biswajit, a young player with an upper limb disability from the recent camps was very emotional about participating for the first time in this kind of state-level tournament. The technical Coach Sanjay Das, himself a veteran footballer with disabilities who was also the main organizer of the tournament mentioned that he was overwhelmed with the support the local people provided for the event and urged the disabled populace to join the camps to build a career in Disability football. Rahul Dasgupta, Managing Director Globsyn, a sponsor who was there to witness the event was overwhelmed to see the game. He welcomed the initiative and assured for future support for disability football. Amit Biswas a footballer with hearing impairment and also a dribbler was one of the main attractions of the event who showed the crowd his dribbling skills. The most surprising part of the event was there was a 20-minute exhibition match between general able-bodied footballers and footballers with disabilities where the latter team won the match!?
While the disability football in Bengal is trying to be systematically disciplined there is a lot of support they would need in terms of money and resources. Hence Abhirupa Kar, Secretary, Civilian Welfare Foundation appealed to the general mass to support this unique initiative where each one of us can play a role to mobilize to change the condition of the disabled populace in West Bengal. After all, inclusion is a birthright!??
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