Khelo India, the flagship scheme of Sports Authority of India, is all set to launch Khelo India Girls League (KIGL) across all sports, exclusively for the girl child.
The first league of KIGL will be the Khelo India Girls Football League, which will be managed and orgsed by All India Football Federation (AIFF).
"In India, the culture of sports is still very nascent. So providing a special platform to the girl athlete is important so that parents and children both feel motivated to take up sports at a young age," AIFF quoted Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju as saying.
The blueprint of the KIGL has been prepared with a view to give impetus to girls to join a sport at the grassroots level and eventually have them groomed to excel in the field. To ensure that the talent can be identified through KIGL, the initial league for any sport will be orgsed by the federation and its partners between local clubs, academies and school teams of a city or town.
"I am very happy that AIFF has already decided to partner with us to orgze the football league for girls. This is the start, and we will soon have leagues in other sports too," the minister said.
As of now, KIGL is being orgsed for the U-17 age group, however, AIFF plans to include two more age categories U-15 and U-13 in the next two years.
"Development of Women's Football in India stays on top of our priority list. With the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup coming up in 2020, we intend to galvse the face of Women's football in India and encourage more girls to take up the sport," AIFF quoted its president Praful Patel, as saying.
"It is a first-of-its-kind initiative being taken by the Government of India and AIFF, and this will help promote the sport and identify raw talent from across the country in a big way. After the first edition, we intend to scale up the league both in terms of age group and scope of operations so that the maximum number of girls can participate," he added.
The league will be sponsored by SAI, but to ensure financial viability in the long run, local orgsers will also be allowed to raise sponsorship for local matches, as per approved guidelines of the government.
( With inputs from ANI )