Kolkata 

As the FIFA World Cup reaches its climax far from India, with stadiums packed and fans cheering their teams, a group of children in Kolkata is fighting a very different battle for their love of the same game. Their biggest opponents are not rival teams, but prejudice, social taboos, and the daily struggle to find a patch of ground to practise on.

For the children of Meye-Cheleder Khela (Girls and Boys Play Together), football is less about trophies than freedom. 

Run by the NGO Bondhu Collective, the mixed-gender team brings together children aged between seven and 20 from Kolkata’s Kalighat red-light area and nearby underprivileged neighbourhoods. Boys and girls train side by side, challenging the long-held belief that football is a sport meant primarily for men.

The team has around 20 members, some of whom have been playing for the past five years, while others joined about three years ago.

For Chandana Mondal, who recently secured admission to a BBA course, stepping onto the field means stepping outside society’s expectations. Football has become both a source of freedom and a form of self-expression for her over the years. 

“Football has given me a sense of freedom. When I am on the field, I don’t feel limited by what society expects from girls,” she said. “Growing up, football was seen as a boys’ game. Every match we play shows that the ground belongs to us as much as anyone else.”

Her teammate Bandana Mondal, who has joined a Women’s Studies programme, has walked a similar path. Like many girls in the team, she balances her studies with training while navigating discouraging remarks from neighbours and the lack of safe spaces to practise. 

The idea behind the team was never simply to teach football. 

“When girls from the community told us they wanted to play, they were being held back by social barriers and the difficult environment around them,” said Smritiparna Sengupta, founder-secretary of Bondhu Collective. “We wanted to create a space where everyone could play with dignity, regardless of gender,” she added.

The organisation deliberately chose a mixed-gender model. Ms. Sengupta said boys from the neighbourhood, inspired by watching the girls practise, wanted to join the team. They were welcomed on the condition that the team would be called Meye-Cheleder Khela, reclaiming a phrase often used as a slur in Bengali and turning it into a statement of equality and an attempt to offer a level-playing field for all genders.

The experiment, however, continues to face practical challenges. 

“Access to playgrounds remains one of the biggest hurdles,” Ms. Sengupta said. Public grounds are often occupied, or priority is given to boys’ teams. Funding, equipment, and regular coaching are constant concerns, the organisers said. 

Coach Pijush Halder believes the girls’ biggest challenge begins long before kick-off. "Talent is not the issue; opportunity is,” he said. “Women players often have to overcome barriers that boys rarely face, from access to grounds to social expectations. With consistent coaching and equal opportunities, these players can compete at much higher levels,” Mr. Halder added.

Finding opponents has also been difficult for the team. A few months back, the team managed to arrange a match against another women’s side but struggled to find a ground to host the game. 

For now, their victories are measured not only by the number of goals they score, but also by the everyday stigma they fight to stand on their own feet, question the norms taught to them, challenge society, and keep playing the game that liberates them. 

In the crowded urban landscape of Kolkata, where space is limited, the young children have carved out a small space of their own to claim the football field one match at a time.