The Unbreakable Girls

Pinky Yadav, Nepal

Pinky Yadav is 11 years old and has played football with Atoot in Nepal for three years. Atoot is a football for good nonprofit based in the rural villages of south Nepal. Established in 2018, Atoot's mission is to provide equitable sporting and educational opportunities to marginalised Nepali girls. This includes daily football sessions, extra educational classes, and life skills workshops, enabling the girls to learn, develop, challenge norms and take ownership of their futures. Led by a team of young, local women, Atoot works with 250+ girls and 600+ community members.

My name is Pinky Yadav. I have six sisters and one brother. All of us live with our father, mother, and grandmother, so there are a total of 11 people in my family. I study in a government school in Dohani, the village where I also play football with Atoot.

I used to see my friend Rajani and some others running at 4pm every day to the same area. Out of curiosity, I followed them. Then I saw them playing football. After that I also wanted to play, so I started to go with them to play football. I really enjoyed the game. Whatever the Atoot staff were teaching me I really liked. So I decided to play every day. 

As a result, I stopped doing some house chores in the evenings. My father noticed and asked me where I was going every day. I told my father that I was going to play football and that the Atoot didis (elder sisters) were teaching us really good and interesting games. 

My father let me go, but my mother was still not aware of it. When she found out, she told me that I could not go, even if they were teaching me and educating me well. In my house there was a lot of work that I had to do.

After that I started telling my mother that I was going to do some chores, but I would run to Atoot’s football sessions and classes. I kept sneaking out from my home this way for more than a year. 

Eventually when my parents found out, my father talked with my mother. They said “you can finish work and then you can play football”. To attend Atoot, I used to come home early to do all the house chores so that I could get time to play and study. Because I was able to finish my work on time, I was able to go to play and attend classes. 

Through Atoot I was able to travel and go to the cities of Palpa and Butwal on educational trips. I even got a jersey, bags, bottle, and a full set of football shoes and socks. After that my father told my elder sister Neha to also join Atoot. She initially said no, as she thought the Atoot staff would make fun of her. But I told her that I had been playing for a long time and they had never yelled or scolded me even once. After that I brought my sister along with me. 

What is your daily routine and what is life like for your family?

I wake up early in the morning at 5am and get ready to play football with my friends. After football I go to sell milk, as we have cows and buffaloes. Then I cut grass, feed the cows and buffaloes, take them for one hour to the field to graze, and then fill water from the handpump and carry it to the stables for them to drink. I even carry cow dung to the field and my mother makes cow dung cakes. 

Cow dung is the poop of the cow, we consider it pure. We make cow dung dry cakes to use for cooking. We cannot afford to have gas because it is expensive. Cow dung is natural and as we are farmers with a lot of cows, it is convenient.

I go to school from 9am until 4pm. In the evening when my friends come back from school I play with them. After that we feed the cows again, milk the cows, boil the milk, cook dinner, and eat, clean the kitchen, and sleep. 

My family sells this milk for our livelihood. We earn 700 rupees (approximately 5 USD) per week. My father works away from home as a driver in Mumbai and there is no other income. My father does not always send money home. We have to manage from that milk money. We eat less in the morning. We cook a little and everyone eats and if there is anything remaining then my younger sisters eat more. We have only one meal per day. 

After getting married my father started earning money and he built our house without anyone's help. He took care of all my sisters and family. The community praised him for taking care of all his seven daughters. We are seven sisters because my family wanted to have a son in the family. When my mother did not get a son, some community members tried to blame her. Finally after seven daughters she had a son. We finally had a boy! My mother has gone through a lot of pain. 

What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning?

I wanted to show the difference between a girl who is part of Atoot and the life of a typical girl in the village who lives just in her house, thinking about marriage and weaving baskets so that she can take them with her after marriage (a custom practised by the communities here), and learning how to cook food so that she can cook at her husband's house. 

On the other hand girls who are going to Atoot programming are doing much better in life. They are doing things to make their family proud. Working hard in class and on the football field to make something good out of their lives. My friend and I have never thought about marriage. It has never come to mind.

What is your favourite photo? Why?

I was rearing cattle one evening with my friends. I saw some other friends who were also rearing their cattle, even some boys were there. Then we all decided to play a game. We asked our friend's grandmother to look after our cattle. There was a big ground where we really enjoyed playing our old games. That moment was filled with laughter. After playing I went back with my cattle, but I was happy to capture that moment. It is something good when we girls enjoy and find happiness in small moments. 

What are the opportunities for girls to play in the community? What do people in your community think of you playing football?

Atoot is teaching us everything, so when we grow up we will be able to go outside our village to work, to study, and play football. Eventually we will become something in the future. Our parents think that because we are playing football we will become something and we will make them proud.

There are people who do not allow their daughters to play football. My neighbour said to my family “How can you send your daughters to play football?” They even say things like “Look at how their daughters are becoming hard to handle. They are even allowing them to play in football shorts. They are becoming older. It is time to teach them how to wear long dresses and be fully covered.”

One day one of my neighbours told me the same thing. I told them “You also have girls, you can also send them to play football. Keeping them in the house covered with full clothes and not letting them go outside is not good!”

Even my mother told my neighbour, “If your girls are still young then what is the point of making them do all the house chores? They will keep doing house chores their whole lives. You should allow them to explore more of their life while they are still young.”

What impact has Atoot and football had on your life?

Before coming to Atoot, when I used to graze our cattle I used to fight with others and abuse them with my words. But now, after joining Atoot, I make people understand that we should not fight and abuse others. When I joined Atoot, the didi told us that if we abuse other players, we will be sent off the field. Now we have stopped doing it and if anyone shouts abuse, we laugh and let it go. 

What do you enjoy most about Atoot? 

I really enjoy doing all the assignments. Like the one we did on environmental sanitation as part of the Junoon project. Junoon do online projects with different schools and help kids learn different things like podcast making and drama competitions. Each time they create a new task. 

We wore sarees and did acting. It felt so good that the project on sanitation we did was recorded and sent across the world. I love participating in the Junoon project!

Before I had very few friends, they were all neighbours from my community. Girls from other communities used to say we were untidy and they would not talk with us. Since the Atoot staff started telling us that we all should be friends and help each other, I have become friends with everyone, we all play with each other. Now that we are friends, no one abuses each other.

What does football mean to you? What are your ambitions for the future?

I am still studying. I want to study and play, and make my community and family proud. I want to earn money so that I can support my family. 

Football has changed my life. Before we used to play mostly indoors with our neighbours and relatives. But since we started playing football, wherever we go we want to play football. I won’t get married. I will play football for the next 20 or 30 years. My whole life is all about football!