TOI: Football – The beautiful game inspires slum kids to give up a dirty habit: May 31, 2012

    “Looking at the talent of these slum kids we started the club with the aim of empowering them through the game of football. A semifinal loss in our maiden football meet was attributed to the fact that boys ran out of steam due to tobacco in their system. We realized that gutka was a menace among 70 per cent of our footballers with U-13 and U-19 being the most-affect group,” reminisced Jamshed.

    So how did they curb this menace? “We floated a scheme where if someone gave us Rs 2, given to them for buying gutka, we would give then a banana, an egg or a bar of milk chocolate in return,” said the former Santosh Trophy footballer. The scheme worked!

    “We knew that these kids loved their game. Anyone reported to have taken gutka was banished from practice for a week or for a month. This was, I would say, the turning point. From here, our dream of a tobaccofree body started turning into a reality,” said Pratap. Today, the foundation has around 120 players in five different categories — U-12, 14, 16, 19 and Open — and nearly 80 per cent of them have quit tobacco.

    After years of hard work, the sharpshooters have managed to overcome the addiction and have been performing well at various football meets in all categories. Saamarthya Foundation’s biggest accomplishment came when three footballers — Naresh Solanki, Rama Makwana and Jitu Rathod got selected to attend the national probables’ camp for Homeless World Cup to be held in Mexico in October this year.

    Rama, an auto driver, took t o gutka when he was a kid. “I didn’t know that evils of it. Today, I am totally of f tobacco,” said the 29-year-old.