The organizers told the coach that, 'I have already left..?' '…and started the journey of making girls wear T-shirt-lower-sports shoes instead of traditional clothes to play hockey and bring them to the national level'
Sarkhadi village of Gir Somnath 'Volleyball Village' – August 29 – National Sports Day
Ahmedabad, In the year 1990, when the team wearing Ghaghro shirts, bangles, chadas and slippers arrived at Meghraj Mukama to play volleyball and lost the first round against Ahmedabad 15-0, 15-3, the organizers of the game told the coach Mr. Varjang Wala who was taking the team that, Are you..?'
Just hearing these insulting words, Mr. Varjang Wala set out to expose the village of 'Sarkhadi' to the global stage for the game of hockey in the true sense.. and today Sarkhadi is a village from which around 300 players have played the game of volleyball at the national level… Also, 4 The sisters have also shown their prowess at the international level. Out of which 2 sisters Kinjal Wala and Chetna Wala have also been captain of the Indian team.
The journey of Sarkhadi and Varjangwala is very interesting… Geographically Sarkhadi village has been changing address, along with the changing address, the village attitude towards volleyball has also been changing. In the beginning i.e. in the period of 1990, Sarkhadi was in Amreli district. Around 1997-98 it moved to Junagadh and is now in Gir Somnath district.
In this village with a population of approximately 5 thousand, the maximum population belongs to the Kardia Rajput and Koli communities. Next in order are the Anu castes, a few Brahmins, and a few Muslim communities. The villagers have a strange affinity for the game of volleyball.
Mr. Varjangbhai Vala joined a local school as a PT teacher in 1988. Mr. Varjangbhai says, 'At that time the system of shame was very strictly enforced in the village, and therefore even the daughters were very shy. The main occupation of the people living in the tube house in the village was agriculture and farm labour. Daughters had to go to house cleaning-farming-slandering-water-filling.
After much effort, the women's volleyball team was prepared and in the year 1990, it was played at the state level in a school competition in Meghraj of Sabarkantha district… The girls went to play in traditional clothes like ghaghra, shirt, bangle, chada and slippers, the team organizers forced the girls to play without the slippers. .And in Adhura, when Puru lost 15-0, 15-3 against the Ahmedabad team, the organizers of the game told me, 'I'm out now..?
These words struck a chord with me…and from there began the journey of making girls wear T-shirts-lower-shoes instead of traditional clothes and play hockey at the national level', he adds.
He started trying to make the daughters who come to school play volleyball, but their parents did not like the daughters to play. We first involved the daughters of my family in this, then gradually other daughters of the village also joined… The daughters started playing volleyball during school hours, after school it was not possible… What is the game of volleyball? And what is the benefit? As he explained, he choked.
'My house was only 200 meters away from the school. It was not possible for the daughters to come to play at any time, so 5.30 to 7.30 in the morning and 6.30 to 8.30 in the evening were reserved for the brothers and 7.30 to 9.00 in the evening so that the daughters could play in the light. From 4.30 to 6.30 he used to make his daughters practice…
Through sports, the narrowness of the village and to some extent the daughters were removed. Initially only 3-4 girls from the village could join the team and gradually this number reached 7-8.
Today, 30-40 boys and 60 girls take training out of total 100 athletes in Sarkhadi. In the year 2006, Gujarat got its first gold medal in volleyball in the National School Games, in which 12 members of the team were from Sarkhadi and Charada villages.
The training and focus increased.. every year the medals kept getting more and more… In the year 2015-16, the 41st Junior National Championship was held in Chandigarh, among the 12 six girls who played were from Sarkhadi.
The audience kept chanting, 'One side village, one side country..' Hearing this, my chest was heaving, we won but really… At that time the announcer of the match uttered a sentence that, “Gujarat team has reached this far. The sports policy of the government has an important role to play…” This was a proud moment for me, adds Mr. Varjangbhai.
It may be mentioned here that the in-school scheme is running in Sarkhadi Primary School, and many girls are currently undergoing special training at the Sports Talent Development Centre. Although Mr. Varjangbhaiwala has retired in the year 2022, he is constantly striving to bring volleyball playing daughters to the national level.
Salutations to such a volleyball hero… Report – Himanshu Upadhyaya
