An evening with Vijay Barse

On Friday, April 22, we had a fascinating session by Prof Vijay Barse whose life’s mission is to change the lives of underprivileged youth living in slums through football.

About Prof Vijay Barse

Prof. Vijay Barse is a retired sports professor from Hislop College in Nagpur with 36 years of service. He was born in 1946 in Nagpur. He did his schooling from Bhandara, a district of Maharashtra. He did his higher education in M.A, MPED and NIS in Physical education and later worked in Hislop College Nagpur as a sports teacher.

Prof Barse has several achievements to his credit:

• He was nominated to the Nagpur Municipal Corporation as a corporator between 2012 and 2017.
• He represented India as a handball official in China and Hong Kong.
• He was appointed as a member of the Maharashtra sports council.
• For his dedication towards Slum Soccer, CNN IBN and Reliance foundation awarded him “The Real Hero Award” at the national level with a cash prize. This prestigious award was given to him by Sachin Tendulkar in the presence of Mukesh Ambani, Nita Ambani and Amir Khan in Mumbai. The award recognized an “ordinary man who was doing extraordinary work in his field”.
• His work was showcased on the Amir Khan show “Satyamev Jayte”.
• Prof Barse was awarded Nagbhushan Award (Nagpur City Award) from Nagbhushan Foundation in 2019 by Mr. Devendra Fadnavis former Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
• In 2016 Slum Soccer became the first organisation to be given the Diversity Award by FIFA.
• In 2018 FICCI awarded Prof Barse the Slum Soccer Gender Diversity Award.

In 2001, Prof Barse founded Krida Vikas Sanstha Nagpur which is widely known as slum soccer nationally and internationally. The organisation runs football programs and provides a chance of rehabilitation to the deprived sections of society. Through different projects the organization is focused on improving the lives of the underprivileged.

Jhund, a biopic of Prof. Vijay Barse, portrays how Slum Soccer has over the last two decades changed the lives of the underprivileged people of India. The film starring Amitabh Bachchan, is directed by Nagraj Manjule.

Prof Borse’s journey

On one rainy day in July 2001, Prof Barse saw some slum children playing football with a small plastic broken bucket. It stuck him that when they were playing football, they were away from all the bad activities such as smoking, stealing, pick pocketing, drinking, etc. The whole scenario inspired him to do something for the underprivileged. He organized a football tournament for the youth which turned out to be successful.

Mr Barse was drawing a comfortable salary and his wife was also a professor. So he decided to spend a good share of his salary on the children. Family members were opposed to this idea. They felt he was wasting his money and children from the slums would never accept this idea or be reformed. But Mr Barse started with a local level slum football tournament which scaled up ultimately and became a national tournament. Mr Barse chose football because it's a very cheap game. All we need is a football, which costs only about ₹600.

Prof Barse decided to keep things simple. There were no rules like offside. The referee would whistle only when a goal was scored, or a player deliberately handled the ball near the goal.

When the national and international media came to know about what was happening in India, they began to take more interest. The famous UEFA came to know that Mr Barse was changing life in India through football. The message went international and other countries which faced similar problems like drug addiction among the youth realised the merit of this idea. Soon a homeless World Cup was organised.

In 2006, Mr Barse’s son, Abhijit came back to India from the US. He had been skeptical earlier. But once he realized the good work that was going on, he decided to join and strengthen his father’s hands.

Till 2008, there were no sponsorships. Mr Barse and his wife were meeting all the expenses. Since then he has received many sponsorships. The initiative has also led to other projects like EduKick where the students are taught English and maths through football. Deaf and dumb children are also being taught through football. Gender equality, leadership, menstrual hygiene are all being taught through football.

Mr Barse does not have any profit motive. He is simply guided by social responsibility. People have begun to trust him over time and now give money freely. Mr Barse is now being involved to spread awareness among Alcoholics. The entire Barse family (wife, son, daughter in law) is now involved in this work.

Q&A

On what keeps him going

Mr Barse came from a very poor family. He had great difficulty in completing his education. But through his hard work he became a teacher. Teaching is a respected profession. It is not only about explaining the subject to the children. Parents consider teachers to be the guardians when the children are in school. So teachers are expected to be role models and guide the children. Prof Barse was thus fully aware of his responsibilities.

Prof Barse had all the physical and mental faculties required. He was observing whatever was happening. He never turned a blind eye to the problems around him. When he saw something wrong, he felt the urge to address it. He would notice a slum close to the college and the bus stop. His immediate thought was what he could do for them. He saw some children playing with a plastic bucket. This gave him the idea. Why not make the children play football for at least 2 hours a day? By spending this much time with them, he would also teach them something good.

Prof Barse believes that God only chooses some people and gives them the required zeal to get things time. If you are the chosen man, you must do it. Prof Barse feels privileged that he is one such person.

On the future of sports in India

The government schemes to promote sports are good but the last mile implementation is a major challenge. Children are not encouraged by their parents to play sports. A sportsperson’s career lasts till the age of 20 to 30 typically. And in India we have encouraged games like cricket instead of football, hockey and table tennis. Internationally, football is a far more lucrative sport with much more money involved.

On the future of football in India

If we have the zeal we can produce good football players. As more people have joined to support Mr Barse’s social initiatives, he is shifting his attention from development through football to development of football.

Prof Barse believes that there are many children in the country who have stamina and strength. They can be trained and developed into good football players. All that is required is to adopt them for a good 5 years, take care of all their expenses including education, stay, food and training.

Prof Barse’s target is very simple, though ambitious. At the age of 14, he wants the children to play at a district level, at the age of 15 at the state level, at the age of 16 at the national level and a year later to take part in premier tournaments like ISL. Finally at the age of 18 they should be selected to the India team. Already the results have started to come. In the very first year, the children training with him have won state level tournaments.

Prof Barse takes good care of the children. There are children from all parts of the country who are with him and despite language problems they are enjoying the whole process of coaching. Prof Barse believes that hard work and commitment will guarantee success. Already his children have won against other academies which are well funded.

Prof Barse is a Christian but he's truly secular in his outlook. He celebrates all festivals. He believes humanity is more important than religion. He truly believes in being a good samaritan and he is confident that he can produce national level footballers from his small Academy.

On how to pitch an idea

Prof Barse believes that people should first trust us. They should understand that we are doing the right thing. This process of trust building may not happen overnight. In the initial days there was a shortage of money as there was no interest in football. Prof Barse was using his own money but as he worked with slum children he got their blessings. People slowly began to appreciate what he was doing. Earlier they would wonder whether he was doing a publicity stunt or getting money from somewhere else. but as the good work continued, people realised that Prof Barse was on a mission. Now Prof Barse is very happy that he has his son to take over his mission.

In fact, Prof Barse did not realise that people from all over the country recognized his work. That is what prompted his son came back from the US. Already he has developed a website and taken over the day-to-day responsibilities. He has given up a lucrative job in the US. This is a clear sign of his commitment to his father’s mission.

On the movie Jhund

The movie captures Mr Barse’s 2 decade journey in a matter of 3 hours. Thanks to this movie, his message has spread across the length and breadth of the country and reached crores of people. That is the greatest benefit of this movie. What this movie teaches us is that we can all achieve anything. We just need to keep our eyes and ears open. We should be prepared to work towards the goal.

Can India win Olympic gold medals?

We have to go to the grassroots. There is plenty of talent available in the country. But money alone will not help. What we need is a missionary zeal. Identifying the right talent is very important, probably the most important step. Fortunately, sports is now a science and sporting potential can be measured accurately today. If we choose the right people and work on them with missionary zeal, there is no reason why we cannot produce many Olympic gold medallists.

Challenges

One of the challenges Mr Barse faced was when his team returned from Denmark. There was an allegation that he had received $2000 per child. Even though he felt like quitting, his wife provided the required moral support. She told him that he was like a tree providing fruits and only fruit bearing trees receive the attention of people. So she told him not to worry. Meanwhile, Prof Barse realized that the football fraternity did not want him because they had been unsuccessful for decades. Whereas he had succeeded in a short period of time

Looking back, Prof Barse believes that self belief is very important. We should believe in what we are doing and continue to work with zeal.

On how sports promotes friendship.

Prof Barse agreed that sports removes all barriers and divisions. When a game is played, feelings related to language, community and religion do not exist Sports promotes friendship, equality and inclusion.

On the road ahead

Prof Barse has already set up centres in Chennai, Calcutta and other parts of the country. He has already made a lot of strides in the development of football in the country. His focus is now on creating better facilities for the children. Right now, there are 7 to 8 children but that number will increase. His coaches will go to the football playing states in the country and identify 20 children every year. Over a period of 5 years, they will have 100 children. By spending time with the children, providing them the necessary facilities and encouraging them, they will be fully motivated.

We thank Dr. Vedpuriswar for bringing out the highlights in the form of this note