The Oscar Foundation

In order to truly begin understanding how Indian football looks and feels across the whole spectrum, I contacted a range of organisations and individuals involved in the sport. Despite the historic I-League and the emerging, well-funded ISL attracting attention at the top level, it was clear to see a gulf between these leagues and the grassroots, amateur game. I was curious to discover what was being done to bridge this gap, and what the pathway into football looked like for an Indian youngster. 

Months before my Mumbai visit, extensively Googling various combinations of ‘India’ ‘football’ ‘grassroots’ and ‘stories’ led me to an article on the ‘Gloucestershire Live’ website, of all places. It told the story of a group of youngsters from a Mumbai slum, who had been given the opportunity to visit the UK and play matches against a range of schools and clubs around the country.

The tour was organised by the OSCAR Foundation – a charity that uses football to educate, inform and improve the lives of children in Mumbai. Intrigued and inspired after some further research, I got in touch with Ashok, the charity’s founder, and began to learn more about his story, scheduling a visit to OSCAR to see first hand the amazing work being done.

Oscar Foundation v Beaudesert Park (photo: Simon Pizzey)

Tucked away down a typically chaotic Mumbai side street in Colaba, OSCAR’s headquarters were full to the brim, a whole host of meetings and conversations taking place as I arrived. As Ashok began to tell his story, and the story of the foundation, I could see very quickly this was about far more than just football. 

‘There is no formal education for young people in my community’, Ashok began, talking me through the cultural challenges that inspired him to found OSCAR in the first place. ‘Rather than send their children to school, it’s more common for parents to encourage children to work from an early age, to support the family’. At 10 years old, Ashok was facing a similar dilemma. Not able to read or write and without available education, he initially followed in his parents’ footsteps and entered the fishing trade. 

‘I was curious to see how my parents made money. Me and some friends would go to the fish market, and we quickly spotted that hundreds of fish would fall beneath the stalls, or be lost as people carried crates from place to place. So we would crouch and crawl around the market, picking up the wasted fish and re-selling them ourselves’

Ashok visiting one of the OSCAR classrooms.

Ashok described how many of his friends would take this money home to the delight of their parents, contribute some of it back to the family, and spend the rest on the growingly dangerous habits of smoking and drinking. 

‘Before long, education was just not an option for these children, and a lot of them went onto live marginalised and criminal lives, without the ability to get back into society. Soon, they would have children of their own, and the cycle would continue’. 

Observing this at such a young age, and being lucky enough to have parents who encouraged Ashok to study instead of work, served as the inspiration for him to break this cycle and do something about it. His story is an exception to the rule, and it has driven him to promote the value of education in an attempt to stop more young people falling into the same trap as his friends. 

Ashok saw sport and exercise as a way to get people in tune with the story. ‘I started offering football coaching and education in the local neighbourhood to get kids off the streets and doing something productive, not knowing what the interest would be.’

Ashok (right) with the manager and team before their game in Gloucestershire.

Combining football sessions with basic literacy and numeracy teaching, Ashok was providing an accessible service to those that needed it most. Inspired by his own experience and working in the very community in which he grew up, this seemed to be ‘grassroots development’ in the purest sense of the term. 

‘I had no real money, and for the first week’s session I couldn’t even get hold of a football. I’d not really expected anyone to turn up, but suddenly the interest was huge. With a £19 annual salary, I spent £4 on a football for the following week’s session, and the first stages of OSCAR were born’. 

This instantly reminded me of a conversation the previous day with a club founder and WIFA representative, who diagnosed the game and nation’s problem in simple terms – ‘there are not enough footballs in India’. Ashok was living proof of that symptom, emphasised by him having to spend 20% of his annual salary just to get access to the only piece of equipment truly required to play the sport.

Ashok in the early days of OSCAR – it seems the £4 was worth every penny.

Ashok spoke of the cultural challenges inherent within the Indian system at play here, but encouragingly positioned football as the perfect way to tackle these issues and move forward. 

‘The caste system and religious problems cause a lack of sharing and openness in Indian culture. But football is a team game, and the values taught go a long way to removing these barriers for young people.’

Using football as the incentive, Ashok soon began encouraging more and more children to attend school. ‘No school = no football was the rule, but it worked! Because of the sessions, far more children were getting an education, and less were wasting time on the streets’ 

In 2014, Ashok and his work with OSCAR started getting the recognition it deserved, winning an award for social impact and education, and a grant of $5000 to put towards equipment and facilities. In recent years it’s grown from strength to strength, attracting more young people to get involved, and partnering with a whole host of corporates and organisations for support and funding.

Day to day, the charity runs a wide range of programs and projects around Mumbai, and it’s expanding all the time. ‘So far we’ve helped over 3900 children. 1500 of these are girls, and it’s a big ambition of ours to get the gender split to 50/50. This is a big thing for not only Indian football but Indian culture as whole, to provide equal opportunity’.

A few key stats on the impact OSCAR has had so far.

As we looked to the future, Ashok’s ambitions remained grounded and ‘grassroots’, focusing on the core principles of what OSCAR was set up to achieve. ‘I want to solve issues using football – it’s a fun and healthy way to go about it’. 

‘We’re looking to create role models, and encourage people to mobilise those in their own communities. It’s a generational project, and these things don’t happen overnight.’ 

Acknowledging the wider growth of grassroots football in India, and the impact it has on the higher levels of the sport, Ashok was positive about the opportunities emerging for the next generation of Indian footballers, and indeed the population as whole. 

‘We’re proud to be part of the growth and importance of football in India. In the last few years our domestic leagues have gained momentum, the men’s national team have achieved our best ever world ranking (97), and the women’s team are moving into the top 50.

The trials and tribulations of the Indian national team – but things are looking up.

As we discussed the intertwining roles of the grassroots and official / professional games, it became clear that despite great progress, there’s still work to be done before India can build an effective ‘infrastructure’. Given OSCAR’s proven success and impact, I asked why one of the governing bodies would not just adopt the same model, and provide the resource to scale it. 

‘There is a lot of good work already being done, by lots of different organisations. But this can cause a lot of duplication and competition’, Ashok noted. 

‘Typically in Indian culture, people will want to do it themselves – whether that’s a governing body or a sponsor. The quicker we can all work together and share ideas at a higher level, the better’.

As it has developed, OSCAR has built a number of partnerships with organisations all over the world. I wondered how, if at all, this might have shaped or affected its management, and what Ashok was looking to achieve in the long run. 

‘Often in India, and indeed the world, funders and sponsors drive the agenda. I think this isn’t quite right – they should be supporting, but not driving. It’s about finding partners who understand that’.

‘We have always stayed true to our goals. I didn’t start this to get funding and become “famous”, I started this to help the community. When I had no money and started from zero, I didn’t compromise, so why should I now?’

Juan Mata recently visited OSCAR, as part of his Common Goal initiative.

As Ashok continued to speak about his ambitions for the future, and his dedication to achieving sustainable impact in the community, it was clear that for everyone involved in the foundation, OSCAR was about far more than just football. Not only are they giving thousands of children access to play and learn a sport, they are also (more importantly) educating and developing them as people. 

To that end, as the meeting concluded, Ashok invited me to join him on a visit to a local International secondary school. OSCAR were one of the school’s charities of the year, and members of Ashok’s foundation were performing as part of a student-led event. It was an amazing (albeit surreal) experience to sit in a school lecture hall and watch a full show, featuring the OSCAR children playing (fittingly) a team of footballers in a penalty shoot-out scene. Watching children from one of Mumbai’s poorest slums performing side by side with children from different walks of life around the world only brought Ashok’s vision further into clarity. 

As we parted ways, I left inspired by the story of Ashok and the OSCAR foundation, hopeful that this approach and ambition would spread further into both the grassroots and professional games, helping football and wider Indian society.

The dramatic final scene of the school performance.