Breaking Gender Stereotypes in Sports: Arjun’s Changemaker Journey

This story was written by Arjun and edited for length and clarity. 

From a young age, I have been an avid footballer and have played in many regional, national and international tournaments. Along with football, technology has been a huge part of my life. Over the years, my passion for technology has encouraged me to work on several projects to create a long-lasting impact on society. Being a football enthusiast, I was always curious as to why India never had a competitive football team. After a lot of research, I realized that a proper scouting system is the first step toward achieving glory at the international level. And, that’s how ScoutMe was conceived. 
  
I am Arjun, founder of ScoutMe. ScoutMe is India’s first online scouting portal and has been adopted by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) as its official scouting platform. It aims at making the scouting of talent a digital process in India and around the world. ScoutMe aims to bridge the gap between players from urban and rural areas and hopes to identify more talented footballers in the process. The reason behind focusing on grassroots areas is to develop talent from a young age, so that he/she is trained and prepared for senior events. ScoutMe today has over 30,000+ players registered and over 10,000 users/scouts nationwide and extends to corners of countries with multiple partners through sports organizations, clubs, and schools. 

The gender question in sports enabled my other initiative- Kicking Gender Boundaries (KGB). The goal behind this initiative is to improve inclusivity in sports. For years I thought ScoutMe was on its way to glory, but with one stat, it all came crashing down. While we had 10k+ users, the number of people who identified as gender non-binary was ‘0’. To me, sports had always been a Perfect Competition Market, an equitable playing field with no hurdles to entry. However, I realized that this wasn’t true for everyone. During the next few months, I tried to address this appalling challenge. However, no door of opportunity would seem open; unanswered calls, denied partnerships, rejected funding requests. Hence, to let the world know about the problems faced by trans players, in August 2018, my school football team and I donned a top, put on make-up, and cross-dressed for a football match with a local team.

While the group have been mocked, manhandled, and thrown out, the news of that match spread across the country. We now had the practical experience to address the complex challenges. This made all the difference – with new partners coming forward to support us. On 30th November 2019, with the help of the Keshav Suri Foundation (KSF), we organized what is probably India’s first Exhibition Football match that featured trans footballers. For the organization of the match, we procured over 7 lakh rupees in funding which were then used to scout, sponsor, and train 9 trans players from across the country.

We partnered with the Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools (a reputed football coaching group) to create and distribute free-of-cost online training modules for 50+ trans athletes. During the pandemic, I also organized online sensitization and awareness workshops for 700+ coaches, players, and supporting staff of these schools. We also launched an ambassador program with 17 NGOs nationwide who then started mobilizing transgender teams in their own communities.