The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midday_Meal_Scheme).
Midday meal workers in Karnataka, India earn ₹ 123 per day while those in Kerala, India earn ₹ 600 per day (https://starofmysore.com/kerala-pays-rs-600-per-day-to-midday-meal-workers-karnataka-rs-123/).
In West Bengal, India the midday meal workers earn as low as ₹ 10 per day as per the Bengali article https://nagorik.net/society/education/thankless-mid-day-meal-workers/.
Why this disparity?
The Cyber Defense Index 2022/23 (https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/15/1063189/the-cyber-defense-index-2022-23/)
The Cyber Defense Index is a ranking of 20 of the world’s major economies according to their collective cybersecurity assets, organizational capabilities, and policy stances. It measures the degree to which these economies have adopted technology practices that advance resilience to cyberattacks and how well governments and policy frameworks promote secure digital transactions.
India is ranked 17.
Amidst the fervour of FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé, the Indian women's hockey team beat Spain 1-0 in the Women's FIH Nations Cup 2022 final on Saturday, 17th December 2022 and earned themselves a place in the 2023-24 FIH Pro League. This was the inaugural season of the Women's FIH Nations Cup, with a promotion to next year's Women's Pro League hockey up for grabs for the winner.
The Women's FIH Pro League (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_FIH_Pro_League) is an international women's field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation, which replaces the Women's FIH Hockey World League. The competition also serves as a qualifier for the Hockey World Cup and the Olympic Games.
This is a great and proud sporting moment for India. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) Women's World Ranking of India is 8 ahead of Japan, United States, South Korea, Italy etc.
> On 27th April 2022, The Indian Express reported that under the Annual Calendar Training and Competitions (ACTC), grants by the government to the football body was slashed from Rs 30 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 10 crore in 2020-21 and is now only Rs 5 crore for the current financial year 2022-2023.
> Considering the poor performance of the Indian football team, AIFF was advised to strictly focus on the development of grassroot-level talent.
I understand that it takes time, knowledge, patience and a structured process to learn the game of football. Indian news media provides so little coverage to grassroot-level football and other discipline of sports that it is practically impossible to estimate the progress. Even social media appears to be least interested unless some controversy erupts.
> As per All India Football Federation website the Golden Baby Leagues Project is a long-term player development initiative that aims to grow a new generation of players, boys, and girls, that start playing football from a very young age. The project envisages that children get exposure to an age-appropriate number of games and playing formats as they grow older.
> The Golden Baby Leagues is aimed for all stakeholders of Indian Football who are engaged with children within this age group, be it clubs, academies, schools, non-government organizations, parents, coaches, football fans. Everyone! Anyone can organize the AIFF Golden Baby Leagues, anywhere in the country.
Unfortunately the amount of information in AIFF website regarding execution of Golden Baby Leagues is minimal. Only the ongoing baby leagues are listed with no further details regarding status, contact information etc.
References:
1. https://www.theweek.in/news/sports/2022/04/27/govt-funding-for-indian-football-slashed-by-85-since-2019-20-report.html
2. https://technosports.co.in/2022/04/30/heres-why-indian-football-5-crore/
3. https://www.the-aiff.com/golden-baby-league
4. https://www.the-aiff.com/golden-baby-league/list
#IndianFootball #MastIndia #India #IndianSports #GoldenBabyLeagues
Bengaluru is bright and sunny again today after almost a week of dull, cloudy and windy weather due to depression over Bay of Bengal near Chennai.
The majestic Halasuru Lake (Ulsoor Lake) of Bengaluru.
Grassroot Soccer (https://grassrootsoccer.org/) is an adolescent health organization that leverages the power of the beautiful game of soccer to connect young people with the life-saving health information & services through soccer. The organization equips young people with the life-saving information, services, and mentorship they need to live healthier lives.
The following content from https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Grassroot-Soccer is worth quoting.
> Despite significant progress in health and development in Africa, including a dramatic decline in child mortality, HIV/AIDS continues to be a leading cause of death among youth in Africa. Sexual violence threatens the health and safety of girls. A lack of access to contraceptives contributes to high rates of teen pregnancy. And mental health services are often unavailable.
> Solving these challenges is difficult—and especially important given that 60 percent of Africans are under the age of 25. So, how can soccer make a difference?
> Because it’s so popular, soccer offers a hook to capture the attention of young people. Grassroot Soccer uses the game to involve them in activities that encourage them to live healthier, more productive lives.
> Founded in 2002 by Dr. Tommy Clark, a pediatrician and former professional soccer player, Grassroot Soccer initially focused on stopping the spread of HIV. (The Gates Foundation was an early funder of its work.) Today the organization works in more than 60 countries and has reached more than 18 million young people.
> Studies have shown that its participants had better access to sexual and reproductive health services, were more likely to stick with their HIV treatment, and were less likely to experience depression.
We need more organizations like Grassroot Soccer.
cc: @srijit@mas.to
## Korokoro Komikko comics and
Highlights of the article in Uttarbanga Sambad (News of North Bengal) dated 27-Nov-2022 and authored by Pratik
Pratik sets the pace of the article with a highlight of success of Japan against Germany in the group E league match of FIFA World Cup 2022. While providing an overview of success of Asian countries in the tournament, he does not forget to mention the political approach of Iran world cup team who refused to sing their national anthem and their commitment to stand by the ongoing movement as an aftermath of Mahsa Amani's demise. Pratik reminds us about the good performance of Iran during previous world cups and wholeheartedly lauds the fighting spirit of Iranian world cup team amidst their political disturbances with a cautionary note that Government of Iran may not overlook the team's political demeanour. Performance of South Korean team does not miss Pratik's attention. South Korea does not have any significant performance in previous world cup events except reaching the semi-final during 2002 world cup on their home turf. Pratik attributes the success of Saudi Arab to their coach Hervé Jean-Marie Roger Renard. Hervé was never the coach of any major European football club. However, he has a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of African and Asian teams.
In the next four paragraphs Pratik elaborates the stupendous rise and performance of Japan as not a one match wonder but as a long term student of soccer. Here are the salient aspects.
1. Zico (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zico_(footballer)) came to Japan in 1991, joining Sumitomo Metal Industries. Japan changed the structure of the their football league and introduced J. League in 1993 and a host of star players from higher ranked soccer nations participated in J-League.
2. Japan did not stop by introducing J. League. They established a strong focus on school level soccer. Pratik refers an article in New Indian Express (https://www.newindianexpress.com/sport/football/2022/nov/23/45-years-after-first-japanese-player-moved-to-fc-köln-4-time-world-champs-stunned-2521393.html), which mentions that since last 35 years, American Tom Byer has been working tirelessly to revolutionise grassroots football in Japan with his football clinics and TV shows. Captain Tsubasa is a Japanese manga series ( comics or graphic novels) written and illustrated by Yōichi Takahashi. It even inspired Byer to create football comic books, called Korokoro Komikko, which proved to be a great success. There were three kids who came to Byer's football school. Minamino, Doan and Endo.
3. 19 out of the 26 of the world cup (2022) Japanese sqad play in European leagues – there are more players in this squad who play in German Bundesliga (8) than in the J-League (7). The most notable of them is Daichi Kamada who has developed into one of Eintracht Frankfurt's key players in recent seasons, impressing both in the Bundesliga and in continental competition for the reigning UEFA Europa League holders. This year (2022) VfB Stuttgart confirmed the signing of Japanese American defender Anrie Chase on Thursday. The Japanese U23 international will play for Stuttgart's youth squad for the duration of the season.
4. Thus there is now sunrise in Japanese football. There will be no surprise if Japan eclipses South Korea in near future and become the undisputed leader of Asian football.
## No magic of Houdini, just the grammar of soccer
Highlights of the article in Uttarbanga Sambad (News of North Bengal) dated 27-Nov-2022 and authored by Jaydeep Basu
Root causes behind encouraging performances of Asian countries in the recent group qualifying matches of World Cup soccer 2022.
- Iran, South Korea, Saudi Arab and Japan have been playing in the FIFA World Cup since 1978, 1986, 1994 and 1998 respectively.
- The above have been achieved not by some magic but through hard work while following the grammar of football.
- These Asian countries have excellent local soccer league frameworks which are as good as those in European countries.
- As early as 2006, Japan had set a soft target of winning FIFA World Cup by 2050.
- Many footballers from Japan and Korea are playing in European Leagues. So there is no lack of confidence when playing against European countries.
- UEFA Nations League is keeping European countries busy among themselves and hence not prioritizing to play with non-European countries. Thus European coaches are not getting a reasonable estimate about how much African, Asian and Latin American countries have progressed and ending up getting surprised.
- Though the recent wins in FIFA World Cup does not guarantee that Asian counties will dominate international arena, it has been established that they have made significant progress.
- With just a few wins, many of us, in India, may start thinking that Asian countries will soon emerge as world champions. We, Indians, may not be able to fathom that stupendous hard work still awaits for these countries to reach the top.
- Soccer fans of India cannot be blamed for a consistent short sighted approach. Prior to every FIFA World Cup, we have been fed by the false claims of our football administrators that India is just eight to twelve years away from participating in the FIFA World Cup.
## Few bullets about myself.
* At work my current focus area is software systems for industrial process automation.
* I have interests in wide variety of topics as mentioned in my profile https://qoto.org/@srijit or https://mas.to/@srijit.
* My preferred languages are English, Bengali, Kannada and Hindi.
* I favour free and open source application software.
* I expect Mastodon fediverse to be the digital town square which rewards moderate and rational talk that promotes consensus.
