Ready to score against Social Exclusion: An analysis on how football can offer avenues of social inclusion for street children in India

Abstract

This dissertation examines the role of sports, especially football in the lives of street children and their inclusion into the society and schooling system in India. Twin fold motivation of this research are social inclusion and role of sports in bringing people together. According to the convention of the right to the child, Indian state policies, the welfare street children, and their social integration are paramount. However, existing literature and my personal observation suggest a lot of marginalization and social exclusion of street children in my home state and my neighboring states in India. Besides, while I was working in Bangalore, which is in the neighboring state Karnataka, I was inspired by the activities of the organizations called ECHO and BOSCO. In the process, the aspect of evidence-based welfare policies in the domain of sports education for social inclusion was intriguing and worth researching in a developing country like India. The research found football can become a tool of social inclusion of street children with the existing educational infrastructure, provided institutional support is adequate, in this case by two NGO’s performing their role. The research found overall interest in studying increased. At the same time better acceptance of the street children with their all educational limitations and sports achievements by the teaching faculty at the schools.