Dribble Academy in Noida: A social game changer for rural kids

Noida: Beating all odds, several underprivileged kids from Noida’s Gejha village are learning basketball with a hope to make a name for themselves and helping their families overcome hardships.

These kids, whose parents work as house helps, security guards, plumbers, electricians, vegetable sellers and small-time shopkeepers, come to Dribble Academy’ -- a basketball training centre at the premises of NEM Public School at Sector 93 here -- after their school hours with a hope to do well in their lives.

Dribble Academy is the brain-child of Noida-based Pradyot Voleti, a former basketball player.
“We have been working with 3,000 underprivileged kids in seven villages. At UP’s Gejha village project, we currently have around 400- 500 children and half of them are girls,” said Voleti, founder of Dribble Academy Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, which trains kids free of cost.

“Basketball has definitely been a game changer for them. Through this sport they learn discipline, team work and time management. They also learn to respect each other as boys and girls compete together,” said Voleti.

Our request to the government is that every five-ten square kilometre of area should have a mini stadium where children have an opportunity to learn multiple sports, he said, adding, “Just an empty ground with some grass is purposeless”.

Children deserve an equal opportunity as a fundamental right to have basic access to multiple sports, Voleti said, and asked the government to come up with a policy to set up sports infrastructure at village levels.

I have been coming to this training centre for the past four years. I want to encourage more girls from my area to learn basketball,” said Kajal Kumari, a 15-yearold student.

Kajal, whose father works in a private factory, wants to convince parents of other girls from her area to let their children play basketball as she feels they can do wonders by learning the game.

For Anshu Pal, another young player from the academy, basketball has made her confident and also brought many positive changes in people around her.

“Initially, neighbours were a bit unhappy about girls wearing shorts for playing basketball. But, after having joined this academy, I have noticed positive changes in people around me,” she said.

Like girls, boys from the area also come in huge numbers to practice and learn the game.
“Once my father saw me playing basketball in one of the recent tournaments. May be he realised my potential and since then he has controlled his drinking habit,” said Arun Kumar, a 13-yr-old student.

Urmila Singh, a coach at the academy said, “It is heartening to see these underprivileged children play so well,” said Singh. (PTI)