India's sportswomen playing to be seen

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed? In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed. But even now, we still don't know for sure who did it. It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories. I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series, I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:45It's a familiar scene of daily drudgery that greets me when I reach 19-year-old Munna's house. She and her mother Lali toiling away, drawing water from the well, washing clothes, as Munna's father rests inside. Once Lali is done here, she will walk for a mile to the nearby field to work as a farm labourer. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Divya Arya and this is Assignment from the northwest of India. Women in this village in the Indian state of Rajasthan, a nine-hour drive from the country's capital Delhi, are mostly illiterate and they are married off early. Lali and I are the same age, but the toll on her of a tough life is evident.

1:37Lali says everything changed when she became a child bride. It made life so difficult, bringing up children, taking care of the husband and daily chores. And if you get a husband who is alcoholic, then it's very difficult to run the household. But what happened to her was said to be repeated when Lali decided to get Munna and her elder sister married early too. Though illegal, child marriage is widely practiced in India, especially here in Rajasthan. UNICEF's latest estimate is that 216 million girls and women in India today have been married before they turned 18. Munna was only 14 when she was told she would be a child bride.

2:31My sister was 16 and I was 14 years old in 2020 when she was married off. When the family came to see her, my mother also showed me to them and offered that I be married to the groom's younger brother. Munna's mother Lali was only 15 when she was married. So why did she marry off her eldest daughter in childhood, even if she knew it's illegal? They say that if girls step out of their homes, they will be exposed to bad influences and run away with boys. We do the marriage quietly. We don't print a wedding invitation or put up a tent. But the difficulties you faced with early pregnancies, your eldest daughter would face them too.

3:20No, she's married into a good family. The rest is up to God. Did she ever say to you she didn't want to be a child bride? No, you can't say no to parents in our society. Once we have decided their match, they cannot say no. Except Munna, unlike her elder sister, did say no. When they told me, you will be married too, I started crying. I said, I don't want to marry right now. I am in grade 9. I want to study. In Rajasthan, many families exchange their daughters to be brides as part of the custom of child marriage. Ironically, this helped Munna. My parents wanted a bride for my brother in exchange.

4:12But that family didn't have a girl. They pleaded that I be married to their younger son and promised they will give a bride in exchange when a girl is born in the family. But my mother refused. She said, what if you don't have a girl? And then our son remains unmarried. Munna had a lucky escape, but it must have felt like a news tightening before she finally found a way to free herself. For her, it was via an unusual route, football. In India, it's cricket that's always been a favourite. The Indian women's first World Cup victory last year was celebrated across the country with the players lauded as heroes.

4:57I'm Divya Arya and in this week's assignment, I'm looking at how sport at all levels is changing the lives of some young women, helping them fight child marriage and discrimination.

5:15I didn't know anything about football. We were told it is played by using the feed. So that's what we did. We were hitting the ball here and there, feeling scared. Then our clothes would get in the way. We couldn't even run properly. So we would lift our clothes and try and run with the ball. But there were battles ahead First, she had to fight just to be allowed to play football Then, to wear shorts on the field And then, to travel out of the village to take part in tournaments

5:51For the first two-three days, village women would point to us and say Look at those girls, exposing their legs Then we started ignoring them and decided we won't care and continued wearing shorts. How does it feel now? It feels great. We had never thought we'll be able to go out and play and wear shorts. It's been life-changing for us. But how could this sport stop child marriage or help those young girls who are already child brides? It's one thing to know of it and it's another thing to see pictures of such small children. How much of the children are with children? Padma Joshi is showing me an album that has pictures of young girls in wedding finery performing Hindu marriage rituals.

6:41Padma was the one to introduce football to Munna and to 800 other girls across 13 villages in Rajasthan over the past decade. She has been leading the Football for Freedom project at MJAS, a women's rights organization.

7:03When we started talking to parents, we never said that we are introducing football to stop child marriage. We said the sport will take girls forward. They will be able to get government jobs that are allocated to sportsperson. That was our approach. But when we worked with the girls and they learned about their rights, about the country's constitution, the ill effects of child marriage and because girls were stepping out, they were able to raise their voices.

7:35Munna's Willits football team is clad in bright yellow jerseys facing their neighbouring Willits football team in bright green. Everybody's wearing black shorts, black socks, proper shoes. The picture is a stark contrast from how I saw them and their mothers in their villages. The mothers wear traditional saris, cover their heads, in fact cover their faces when in the presence of men in public. And these girls, being guided by two male coaches, are playing as if without a care in the world, with complete abandon. At half time, I asked the girls if they would stand in a straight line. This is Munna's Willids football team and I want to find out how many of the girls here were forced into early marriage.

8:21and I'll ask them to step up. Munna, as many girls have to do their hair, you can move on. That's nine out of 12. Just Munna, her sister and one other player were able to resist the pressure to marry early. So it's incredible that all of these girls are here on the field and have been able to fight for that right.

8:46Even though football hasn't been able to prevent all these girls from marrying, A sea change has been achieved, with even child brides being able to train in football, opening the possibility of some independence and a different life. Munna's fight back now extended to her younger sister, who made it to the Rajasthan state football team. But just as all this was happening, the old ghost came back to haunt Munna again. A proposal for a three-way bride exchange involving her and her niece, who was just a few months old.

9:26My eldest sister has had a baby daughter, and her in-laws are putting pressure for my marriage again. They want to marry this baby girl into another family, get a girl from that family for my brother, and marry me to their younger son to complete the exchange. It's like life finds a new path, a rebellion via sport, but the threat of breaks being applied is constant. Who decides who gets to play? Where can champions come from? As Munna battles this widespread but illegal practice of child marriage, hidden in a remote part of Western India, girls from a minority community have their own challenges and they are trying to find their way out via sport.

10:20Hanifa Bain belongs to the Siddhi community in the state of Gujarat. The Siddhis are an ethnic tribe of African origin that was brought to India centuries earlier, mostly as slave labour. In 1991, when Hanifa Bain was 10 years old, just like the girls she's training now, she was spotted under the government's Special Area Games Program to develop sporting talent amongst tribal people in remote areas. It was a golden opportunity for a girl from the Siddhi community. Slavery had been abolished, but they still faced stigma and discrimination.

11:04Some would say they have come from Africa. They're African. Others would say they are from West Indies. Earlier, we wouldn't even be allowed to drink water from other people's homes. They would give it to us like this, in a bowl, from a distance. That's how people from dominant communities would give us water. I have seen those days too.

11:31The discrimination meant the tribe shrank inwards, settling into remote forested areas in two states, Karnataka in the south and here in Gujarat in the west. Even as social attitudes changed and the government brought in various programs for them, the around 20 ,000 members of the Siddhi community in India remained reclusive. As I walk around their impoverished neighborhood of small houses with open drains and children scampering around, their distinct features, hair and skin colour, are unmissable. It's a community that is invisible to most in the country. Seeing it in ghettos, in villages and small towns, living in poverty with lack of education and minimal exposure to the opportunities and world outside.

12:22For children here, sports is not just about trophies and medals. It's playing to be seen. I was in 3 ,000 metres. I was my first number. Hanifa Ben tells me she went on to win a gold medal in long-distance running at the regional school games back in 1991. It promised her the chance to change her life. But the dream was cut short. Hanifa Ben's father and brother had an accident at work, and she had to come back home.

12:57I was never able to return. Soon I was married and had kids. I thought about the children in my community and how their lives were exactly like mine used to be, living in poverty. But I knew how to uplift them and take them forward. So I decided to do that and realize my dream this way.

13:22This is as far as you can imagine from a sports field. It's an abandoned mill compound. Part of it has grass in it and most of it is just plain surface. There's garbage all around and on the edges of the compound there are some makeshift huts in which families are living. And in the middle of it all, Hanifa Ben is leading these 15, 10, 12-year-old girls in red t-shirts and shorts. None of them have shoes, most of them are wearing slippers. Some are running barefoot. Hanifa Bain is not a qualified sports coach. What she is doing is helping these girls discover their potential and guide them to government schemes, selection camps, opportunities to shape a sportsperson's career.

14:16The result is athletes like Muskan. Hanifa Bain drives Muskan into the compound on her scooter. Muskan has brought her latest medal in long-distance running to show me. She stays in a hostel now and trains at a professional academy with the help of state sponsorship. But her sports journey began here. I used to train barefoot here. Earlier this place was even more dirty. We used to sweep it to make it usable. Muskan's parents are fruit vendors. And she says, without the guidance here, she couldn't have dared to aim any higher.

15:01When I went outside, I thought I can also do something. There is nothing in the village here. Only when we see the world outside, we get motivated to do better. And that motivation is what led another Siddhi girl to aim higher than ever before. You're listening to the documentary from India.

15:50story. What did they miss the first time? The History Bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Divya Arya and this is Assignment.

16:10Shaheen Darjada is a judo champion. In September 2025, she created history for her community and for her country. Competing in the 57kg category, she became the first Indian, man or woman, to win a gold medal at the Asian Junior Judo Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia.

16:35I meet her when she's back in India. The 20-year-old is quietly spoken when off the judo mat. I felt very proud.

16:51Judo has taken her from a small village in Gujarat to this state-of-the-art training academy in Ahmedabad, a city of over 5 million people. But it was a journey she was hesitant to make.

17:11I prefer to stay in my village. I didn't even want to come to the hostel for training. I'd keep crying. Then my parents explained that it would be good for me and help me move forward.

17:29Shaheen's coach, Lal, explains that it's hard for these young girls to assimilate with people from other communities. To help them adjust, they have brought in an additional coach from the Siddhi community. Lal believes Siddhi athletes have a lot of potential and wants to make every effort to spot them young.

17:51We scout talent from small towns and villages, children of the ages 11, 12, 13, to identify the sports they are suitable for. If they're good in running, then athletics. If they have power and speed, then we train them in judo.

18:10The Asian Championship win helped judoka Shaheen qualify for the World Championships juniors to be held in Lima in Peru. She has a little over a month to prepare.

18:23I ask her coach if that's enough. The world champion is not easy. The atmosphere is different there. Unlike that at the Junior Asian Championship, the crowd may be much larger and a higher level of opponents. But we are fully ready for that and have already analysed the athletes that she will face and the way she needs to fight them. But Shaheen is aiming for something more than a medal. I want to make my own identity. So people say they want to become like Shaheen.

19:00Back in the village in Rajasthan, Munna shows me trophies she's won at local tournaments. She didn't rise to the sporting heights Shaheen has achieved. But being a football player helped her forge an identity and ward off the pressure to marry early. And it's now helping her youngest sister, 15-year-old Nisha, to fight back.

19:26One day, I was going to play after finishing the household work and Papa said, is your lover waiting there? I replied, there is no lover. I am going to play football. That is my love. With her close-cropped hair, Nisha's rebellion literally stares you in the face. Girls just don't do that here. Nisha says she feels emboldened by her sister. Despite these small wins, every day continues to feel like a fresh fight, as the pressure to marry is not easing. Once, a family came when we were playing. They saw both of us. They took a picture of my sister and they took me home. My mother asked me to touch their feet as a mark of respect.

20:17I refused and said I will consider doing it after marriage. So did the family say anything? They said, is this a boy or a girl? We want a girl, not a boy. They said this and left. Nisha nods in the affirmative. I wonder why these have to be constant personal fights for these girls.

20:46So I go to meet Anjali Sharma, the district's government officer responsible for the welfare of children. I ask her why people are not deterred, despite a law clearly setting out punishments for child marriage.

21:03The law says that every person who has helped in a marriage should be punished, even the person who prints the wedding invitations. But that does not happen, because no one will come forward as a witness. It becomes very difficult to get a conviction, because we need to go and stop the marriage as soon as we know about it. But the family will then often move the marriage to a date before or after the one we are expecting. It's clear then that fear of prosecution is not working on its own. Padma Joshi of the women's rights organization MJAS believes it needs to be accompanied by a change of attitude in local communities and more support from government institutions.

21:50Instead of stopping one or two marriages, we believe sustained change can only come when their mindset changes and then that might stop child marriage. The other challenge for girls is they don't have opportunities because it's not like they will play in competitions and finish their education and then somebody is waiting to give them jobs which can help them be financially independent and live a life of dignity. Munna is now 19, an adult, and one with dreams of a different life. Football has saved her from becoming a child bride. But if she doesn't find a way to be financially independent, then she will be pressured to marry, and her universe may shrink back to resemble her mother's world of household chores, cooking, washing, cleaning.

22:51As for Shaheen from the Sidi community, it's hard luck at the World Championship Juniors in Peru. She gives her best, but crashes out early. And yet, when she reaches home, she gets a hero's welcome.

23:09They want to celebrate her journey, which has been both life-changing and inspirational. Shaheen takes me to the terrace of her two-story house, the tallest in the Siddhi neighborhood, and points to a small hut in the lane below. That was the house my father grew up in. That small one? Yes, we built this new house during the coronavirus lockdown. The construction is not completed yet. Shaheen's mother takes me around, showing me the room that has a special shelf for Shaheen's medals and tells me the prize money Shaheen got from winning competitions was crucial in helping build the house. Her father took loans to help her and move forward.