One to watch; Puspa Kumari Toppo

PUSPA KUMARI TOPPO, from the tiny tribal village of Hutup in Ormanjhi Block, attends 7th class at a local government school. She is the fourth daughter of Muni Devi, a midday meal cook at the local government school who earns Rs 500 ($11) per month, and Jhabu Oraon, a mason at a local hospital earning Rs 110 ($2.40) per day. Her family has one cow and two oxen, and two small fields where they grow rice, wheat and vegetables.
For Puspa, it’s been a big year. She has been with us since our first practice, barefoot, in a tattered yellow dress and red bandana – her uniform for six months – and she was the first chosen by the boys for their own team once they warmed to the idea of girls playing. Before December, she had rarely ventured outside her village, when she traveled to India’s premier football academy, Tata Football Academy (TFA), for a week-long training camp. Soon after, she was selected along with twelve teammates from Yuwa for the State Girls U13 team, and traveled to Tamil Nadu to represent Jharkhand at the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) National Football Festival.

She impressed national team scouts by launching a ball off her forehead (served up by her older sister Usha) past Bombay’s goalkeeper – one of her many goals of the tournament where and her teammates chalked up wins against bigger and more experienced teams from Bombay (8-1) and Delhi (3-0). She is one of fifty girls in India to be selected for the AIFF National Training Camp in Kerala, and if selected there, will travel to Sri Lanka to represent India.

Puspa is generally shy and quiet with adults, but on the field she lights up like a thousand lanterns. Slowly she has become a regular fixture at Yuwa Club’s afternoon study sessions as well. “I think studies are important, and I’m happy,” she says. “I want to be a good player and I feel very good. I was happy to score goals against Manipur (India’s top girls’ team). My mom and dad are also happy with me.”

Photo 1) Puspa (foreground) with teammates from Yuwa Adivasi Club (Photo credit: Ashok Nath Dey for The Hindustan Times)
Photo 2)Puspa studying at home (Photo credit: Ashok Nath Dey for The Hindustan Times)