Rama Krishna Sangem
Ya_All Sports Club is India’s first transgender football club launched recently in Imphal West district of Manipur. The club has been formed not just to give a sporting platform to transgenders, but also to end gender discrimination – particularly against this people. This club promotes football. As Manipur people love football like anything, this club is expected to serve its purpose on gender justice.
Takhellambam Diya was worried when he first arrived at the football ground six months ago. Diya had just received a chance to play as central midfielder, a role he relished as it allowed him to boss around the pitch as a playmaker. Outside the ground, however, it was a different story for Diya, a transgender man.
“It has been six months since I joined Ya_All Sports Club,” says Diya, a resident of the Wangoi Thounaojam Leikai neighbourhood in Manipur’s Imphal West district. “I was initially concerned about the gender bias against transgender people in sports, but not anymore,” he beams
Among the first to arrive for training at the ground of the Langthabal Sporting Club in Imphal West, Diya has worked hard as a member of the Ya_All Sports Club, India’s first football club of transgender players, to battle discrimination and raise awareness about gender justice and equality.
Transgender inclusion is difficult
“It’s difficult to bring up the issue of gender inclusion before people,” says Sadam Hanjabam, who founded Ya_All, a support group for the LGBTQ community in Manipur, seven years ago. “But Manipur has a special attachment to football and the society doesn’t tend to judge people if they are wearing a jersey,” adds Hanjabam, a resident of Imphal, the capital of Manipur known for its passion for the Beautiful Game.
“Instead of sitting in closed rooms and talking about our problems, we decided to go out to stadiums and play football,” explains Hanjabam about the origins of Ya_All Sports Club formed entirely of transgender male players. “Football is more than just a game in our state. People feel that if someone is playing football, they are contributing to society,” he adds.
The first match in the country between two teams of transgender players took place in Imphal in March, 2018. “It was a friendly match between one team of transgender men and the other of transgender women,” recalls Hanjabam. The unprecedented event served as a testing ground before Ya_All would formally declare the formation of a football club of transgender players two years later.
Will other states in India too learn a lesson from this? Will there be many sports clubs for transgenders to prove their talents? We need to see.
(Curated story from sources in media)
