KABADDI
FINDING HER VOICE
When shy, reserved Girija first joined the Kabaddi team, she was engaged in a legal battle with a brother who threatened to throw herself and her parents out of their home.
Serving at first as a means of escape from her stressful home situation, Girija hardly expected that sport would soon be causing her to travel regularly to new cities and villages, meet other female athletes, and fiercely battle her way to victory in a final match attended by thousands.
“Until I started playing on the Kabaddi team, nobody in the village knew who I was,” reports Girija Devi. “Now I’m a common face. I have grown so much through Kabaddi. It has given me a new identity. Now I am a confident, strong woman: not a victim.”
Even with literacy and vocational skills, it is difficult to make changes to a lifestyle without self-confidence. For a real shift towards a gender equitable society, women must have the emotional strength to combat the norms of their villages and homes. Satyagyan gives women the opportunity to find this courage through a game called Kabaddi.
Kabaddi is a popular sport in India played in both rural and urban areas. The purpose of the game is to tag the other team and return to your own side, all while chanting the word "Kabaddi" in one breath.
Satyagyan Foundation, in partnership with World Literacy Canada, organizes an annual Kabaddi Tournament on International Women's Day that has hundreds of women in our program areas form teams and play Kabaddi. To learn more about the Tournament, click here.
Our Kabaddi tournament goes a long way to confront gender stereotypes and provides opportunities for women who are neo-literate from rural villages to travel around the region and share experiences and stories with other women previously confined to the home. Through Kabaddi, women are able to exercise their right to freedom of movement. Thousands of women come to watch the tournament each year.
WHY KABADDI?
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To develop leadership skills among the women
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To show the women that working together they can achieve any goal
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To promote the courage necessary to step out of their home
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To promote good health and fitness
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To demonstrate the power and unity on International Women’s Day
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To expose rural women to urban life in Varanasi
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To promote the ancient Indian sport of Kabaddi
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To provide a platform for rural women to interact and socialize freely