Elders with Vision: Building Youth Strength through Sports

[LEBU MURMU]

In Kewdha, an indigenous Santhal village,  elderly members of the village council called Manjhiharam have shown forward thinking. They believe that if everyone in the community shared the same mindset, village development would be certain. Over the past few years, they observed that many children and youth in the village were spending too much time on mobile phones, wandering around aimlessly, and some had even started getting involved with drugs. The number of students attending school was gradually decreasing. This deeply concerned them, but they did not take any action 

We at Suchana in April 2025 facilitated youth from the village to disseminate baseline study in the village, which also highlighted the above issues and sparked discussion. During our personal and group SALT conversations with the Manjhi Haram, they realized that they had strengths to do something about the issues.

The elders began to discuss how they could bring all the children and youth together. They also wanted to influence the neighbouring villages. To achieve this, they decided to organize a two-day football tournament involving 16 teams, one from their village and 15 from surrounding villages. Each elder receives Rs 2000 as governemnt monthly pension. Twelve elders contributed to collect Rs 12,000 to make this event successful. They did not seek any external contribution except using the village ground.

The main goal of the tournament was to unite the youth. Football, being a team sport, attracts large crowds and encourages communication, teamwork, and friendship. About 450–500 spectators attended the tournament, with 160 youth players from 16 teams. The village youth football team consisted of players aged 16-28 years. The event also became a source of income for Kewdha youth, who set up three food stalls selling fruit and rice muri during the tournament.