Dhanmoni, a volleyball player from Boko, Assam, runs a BVL (Brahmaputra Volleyball League) Centre in her remote village. With sheer perseverance and support from elders, three teams from her village have been formed so far. One Dulal Borah from Majuli, the world’s largest inhabited river island, who could not pursue his passion for volleyball, has motivated a group of young lads from New Mising Village to form a BVL team. Timong, a young girl from Solmari Village of Morigaon district in Assam used to watch others play for straight seven days, but on the eighth, she gathered the courage to ask to play. She is now learning new skills at the BVL Centre. These are stories taken from Abhijit Bhattacharya’s LinkedIn feed, former captain of the Indian volleyball team and the only Assamese to represent the state at the national level who conceptualized the Brahmaputra Volleyball League, a revolution that is bringing communities together in Assam.
Bhattacharya, who was recently awarded the prestigious RG
Baruah Memorial Awards 2024 in Sports, consistently shares stories of dreams,
hope, efforts, and unity in excelling at a sport that never got due recognition
in Assam, and even in whole of India. For Assam’s topography, groups of lads
serving a ball over a rope on a char, in a school courtyard or a field by the
bend of a village is not an unusual scene. What BVL has done is to recognize
that potential and bridge barriers to create a unified whole across the state.
The implications of such a grassroots revolution have got the
attention of many globally, and for all the right reasons. What takes a Rahul, Amiya,
Amirul, or a Timong, who have not even gone out of their villages, to come
together with others their age and play for their village teams in a sport that
was undermined for years? BVL is the answer. Started in 2020 with the mission
to provide hundred balls to tea garden children with the name “Assam Volleyball
Mission 100,” BVL took shape against the backdrop of an extraordinary zeal seen
across communities and an undying passion to play for their villages.
Bhattacharya outlines the communities as the backbone or the
most vital sponsor of the league, as they take care of fooding, lodging and
other organizational requirements of the matches. The womenfolk from villages,
most of them mothers of the children who take part, act as the caretakers. A
few of them who were passionate about volleyball at their young age but could
not pursue due to lack of facilities and scope, have now turned out to be coaches/mentors
of teams.
Organized in a home-and-away format, BVL offers children the
scope to build team spirit and a chance to travel to different parts of the
state, something that was only a dream for many. In the inaugural season, BVL had
a modest 50 teams and jumped more than four times in Season 2. Now in its 5th
edition, it would go on floors from October to February 2025, spanning five
months. More than 900 matches are to be played by more than 300 teams
representing 160 villages from 31 districts in Assam. Another significant
milestone is girls outnumbering boys. From a 2:1 ratio of boys and girls in
Season 1 to 116 girls teams vs 104 boys teams registered in the under-16
category of the upcoming Season 5, the league is leading the way.
With no marketing expenditure, Bhattacharya is urging
everyone to come and adopt a team for fifteen thousand rupees and be a part of
the journey. Already, the league has brought together sponsors from all over
the world, with sporting legends and corporations lending support. OIL India
Ltd., ONGC have been sponsors, VectorX is sponsoring the balls in the league,
Signify is the lighting partner, and many more. This way, there is also a CSR
upsurge taking place in rural Assam alongside. Recently, a contingent of
Olympic Gold Medallists was sent by the Fédération International de Volleyball
(FIVB), the apex global governing body of volleyball. The group gave trainings
to the youngsters and spent some quality time in Assam’s villages. It certainly
signals a boost for the state’s sporting scene.
Another important aspect is that a key sustainability network
is being created throughout the league where women from the villages are being
trained to stitch kits for the teams, participants and volunteers are making
wood and bamboo tripods to livestream matches and food is being served on
self-brought plates to reduce waste, among other initiatives. Social hierarchy
and prejudice are shattered with this empowering effort.
So, when we reflect on the state of affairs in sports in the
Northeast or India as a whole, and we often see developments getting caught in
a bureaucratic quagmire, we shall give push to this kind of sustainable and
community-driven initiative that holds greater potential. When the involvement
from all sections of society gets materialized, such revolutions take shape and
spirit takes flight. From chars to hills, from boats to trains, the young
dreamers from Assam are taking stride, one serve at a time.
(Email: simantabarman.work@gmail.com)
