On the ball: The Indian women’s football team in action against Pakistan at the South Asian Games in Dhaka

It could be a script for Bend It Like Beckham II. A story not just about one girl’s burning desire to play football, but about a whole bunch of Indian girls who keep their passion for soccer alive against formidable odds, and then go on to sparkle at an international meet.

For that’s what the Indian women’s football team is doing in the South Asian Games being held in Dhaka. They’ve thrashed Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal and are poised to play the finals on Monday. This despite the fact that the team was in a sort of football wilderness for over two years — it did not play a single international match since October 2007 when it lost to Iran in Tehran in the Asia Cup qualifier.

All India Football Federation (AIFF) general secretary Alberto Colaco claims that the long hiatus was unavoidable as no other international women’s football tourneys were held during this time, and that organising friendly matches with other nations is a tough proposition. But FIFA reacted sternly to India’s prolonged absence from the international circuit and dropped it from its world rankings (52nd) in June last year.

Perhaps that jolted the authorities out of their torpor. Two training camps were held in quick succession — in Orissa and Goa — in the run up to the South Asian Games. The Goa camp, which began in late November, got a further boost as it was led by US under-15 girls’ coach, Mike Dickey, for two weeks. “At the camp the girls learnt to be much more aggressive,” says Shahid Jabbar, coach of the Indian team, speaking from Dhaka. “Right now our morale is very high. We hope to win the gold in this tournament.”

Captain Bem Bem Devi is no less optimistic. “We are confident. In fact, we are now hoping for a good result in the next Asia Cup qualifier,” says the veteran player from Manipur.

But those who work in the field of women’s football point out that the team’s current purple patch is of little consequence because the wins have been against minnows like Pakistan or Sri Lanka. “These wins mean nothing,” says former national coach Harjinder Singh. “They have to test their skills against stronger teams like Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan and South Korea.” Agrees Shukla Datta, star striker of the 1970s and 1980s, and now chief coach of the women’s under-19 team. “They need more exposure to higher ranked teams. That’s how they will improve.”

Indian women footballers haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory at international meets in recent times. They nearly always get knocked out at the Asian Women’s Football Championship where China has been coming out tops for the past several years. Playing at the World Cup has also remained beyond their reach.

Yet it was not always so. When women’s football started being played seriously in the 1970s, the Indians were a force to reckon with. In Bengal, legendary soccer coach P.K. Banerjee’s wife, the late Arati Banerjee, took the lead in scouting for talent and setting up a women’s team. And there was talent in plenty. The national team had such stellar players as Shukla Datta, Arjuna awardee Shanti Mallik and Kuntala Ghosh Dastidar — all of them from Bengal. “Their footwork, dribbling and shooting skills were amazingly good,” remembers Banerjee.

India shone in the international arena too. They were runner up in the Asian Championship twice — 1979 and 1983 (losing the trophy to Taiwan on both occasions) — and bagged the third place in 1981. They even participated in the World Cup in 1982. “Those were the glory days,” smiles Ghosh Dastidar.

Some experts feel that women’s soccer began to go downhill once the Women’s Football Federation of India, which used to run the ladies’ version of the game, was merged with the AIFF in 1985. “There was no one in the AIFF to promote the cause of women’s football,” says Subhranshu Roy, who is working on a PhD in Indian women’s football at Rabindra Bharati University.

Part of the problem is the limited resources allocated to the sport. For example, the AIFF has earmarked Rs 2.5 crore for women’s soccer in 2010-2011, which, says Colaco, is about 12 per cent of the total budget of the federation for the year.

Is that a fair allocation?

“It’s very fair,” snaps Colaco.

The fact, however, is that women footballers are treated almost like second class citizens compared to their male counterparts. If the men’s team travels by air to participate in a national meet, the women are relegated to the sleeper class on trains. If the former stays in hotels, the women are often lodged in dormitories or schools. It’s open and unabashed discrimination but the girls take it silently because they are so keen to play the game.

“It’s the age-old chauvinistic attitude — that women can’t really play a sport like football,” says Novy Kapadia, football expert and commentator. “Which is why the game is so neglected in India. There are not enough tournaments, very little club football and little or no employment opportunities.”

Indeed, the lack of job prospects is a huge disincentive for women to get into the sport and stay the course. For example, though there are jobs in the railways and other government undertakings for almost all athletes, there are hardly any for women footballers. So women often play some other sport over and above football to land those government jobs. Ghosh Dastidar, for instance, got her Eastern Railway placement not as a footballer but as a basketball player. And AIFF coaches’ chairperson Shanti Mallik got a job in the railways as a hockey player.

The other problem is the lack of tournaments. Though nearly 20 states participate in the national championships, women’s league football exists in just five — Manipur, Bengal, Maharashtra, Orissa and Goa. Apart from Manipur, which contributes the bulk of the players to the Indian team, the leagues are conducted in a pretty sketchy way. “Take women’s league football in Calcutta. There is no infrastructure, no club facilities — nothing. It’s just carrying on somehow,” says Mallik.

Still, there are now signs that the AIFF wants to do a little more to promote the game. “We are laying a lot of emphasis on our youth teams,” reveals Colaco. “We’ve had camps for the U-19 and U-16 teams. At present a camp for the U-13 girls is in progress in Thiruvananthapuram.” Talks are also on with the US Soccer Federation to send our age group teams for training there, he adds.

“There’s a lot of talent in the country at the junior and sub-junior levels,” says Ghosh Dastidar, who has been organising inter-school tournaments in Bengal’s districts under the aegis of the Women Footballer Welfare Association. But you have to nurture this talent, she says, otherwise they will fade away. And for that you need funding, which is always in abysmally short supply.

Ultimately, it’s their performance that will lift women footballers out of the shadows. Of course, that’s a bit of a chicken and egg thing. Unless the players are supported and promoted, good performances will also be hard to come by.

Is the AIFF listening?