Levelling the playing field: Creating an inclusive sports culture for participants from a vulnerable community

While the historical exclusion of women, particularly minority women, from sports has been noticed and recorded, there is a paucity of initiatives to foster an inclusive environment that welcomes their participation and uphold the ethics of fairness and inclusion. In particular, we do not know well how class and community factors impact gender differentials and women's right to physical space and to play. This is a case study of an initiative by Parcham, an NGO in Mumbra, a suburb of Mumbai, that views gender exclusion in sports through constructing women's access to football. Complicated as it is by the dictates of local religious and community norms, Parcham views women's right to play as an ethical issue and is attempting to address it.