Bridges of Sports Foundation
Develops and encourages world class atheletes from mariginalised local communities in India through selection and appropriate coaching
- Bronze Certified 2023
- 80G
- 12A
- CSR-1
About
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Headquarters
Bangalore, Karnataka
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Since
2016
The Siddis were brought to India over 400 years ago. They have confined themselves into forest areas in the coastal belt of India. There are over 40,0 Read more00 Siddis residing in Karnataka alone. In 1987, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) started a Special Areas program to train Siddis in athletics. The Siddis were relying on sports to train and represent India and also as a pathway towards aiding their social and economic integration into mainstream Indian society. But unfortunately, despite the Special Areas program being a success, by the start of 1990’s - SAI stopped the program. SAI restarted the program to train the Siddis twice (in 90s and in 2013) but the plan was scrapped after 1-2 years. Based on our tests on the Siddi community, we have seen children attribute exceptional athletic ability. For example, Ravikiran Siddi’s data was among the 99th percentile for the Vo2 max test conducted at Manipal Sports Science Centre. A 13 year old girl Shalini Siddi ran 100 mtrs in 13.2 secs (with no prior training !). Another survey conducted by us found more than 85% of children did not understand the need for nutrition to be better in sports. During the SAI program in 1985, they had produced results in a short span of time. Lawrence Caitan Kamrekar became a Junior National Boxer, Juje Siddi was a footballer who played for Salgaocar Sports Club in Goa and as well as the Indian National Football Team. Luis Ishenti Briji represented India at the Asian Games in athletics. Mary Garibache, athlete (4x100 metre relay) represented India at the Commonwealth Games. Philip Anton Souz was another athlete who excelled from the first batch. The potential and talent is clearly present in the community but their social exclusion/ discrimination and lack of support has crippled their ambitions for decades.
Issue
In 2009, the Planning Commission noted that over 50% of rural areas were unaware of the Rural Sports Program. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, in 2013, pointed out a lack of coaching awareness, high dropout rates, and a shortage of Olympic prospects. The CII and KPMG report from 2014 emphasized a shortage of 32,000 coaches annually, primarily male, and limited corporate support for budding athletes. According to the NSDC report, India lacks over 0.4 million physical education teachers and coaches. The Sports Authority of India's grassroots program reaches only 0.0035% of India's youth. According to the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), India has the potential to generate over 1 million jobs in the sports sector. In a study encompassing 27 EU member states, sports-related employment was found to contribute to 4.46 million employees. Remarkably, Germany alone, employs over a million people in sports-related roles. The study also revealed that the sports sector's contribution surpasses that of agriculture, forestry, and fishing combined. In Brazil, football alone has created 150,000 jobs, accounting for 0.7% of the country's GDP, with expectations of tripled contributions in the future.
Action
Our organization champions a unique and empowering approach of sports excellence through a hyperlocal, community-led model. We identify communities which have potential to excel in sports and work closely with them by identifying, nurturing and developing them to become the best athletes in the country. This is done through a team of coaches, sports scientists, physiotherapists, psychologists who work with the selected children, through an excellence center setup in the community Currently, we are developing the fastest athletes of India from a few of its remote communities in Karnataka. By nurturing talent in these remote communities, we're not only producing some of India's fastest athletes but building role models at community level to enable large scale social and economic transformation of the community. Our mission transcends sports excellence through systemic change and building agency in the community. The agency enables them to sustain this program in the long run and strengthen their social and economic progression.
Demographies Served
Cause Area
Sector
Sub Sector
Impact
We have worked with over 10,000 children across 4 states of India and currently training 500+ children full time in athletics. Our selected athletes (none of whom had any prior training) have won more than 300 medals at taluk, district, state level and also finished among India’s and Asia’s fastest athletes. We have provided skill development for 50 community coaches and over 2000 children around topics like nutrition, soft skills, hygiene, sports career and mental health. We have proven our core model of how the hyperlocal approach can sustainably identify and develop talent in the Uttara Kannada District of Karnataka. Nayana Kokare who is currently the fastest 19 year old of India and Asia was identified by us in 2019 in one of our village leagues running barefoot with zero experience in training. She is also the first girl from her village to pursue studies beyond 10th and has now interacted with over 25k community members through her success in sports. Along with this we now have developed 3 of the fastest athletes of India across age categories of under -14, under-18 and under-20. This is the first and one of the most unique breakthrough successes for the community. We have strategic partnerships across the world in the UK, Qatar and USA with few of the best coaches and elite training centers - to support development of our athletes and for conducting international camps for training as we move closer to our athletes representing India. We have partnered with Olympic coaches who have won more than 40 Olympic and world championship medals to support the development of training programs for our athletes.
Programs
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Project Toofan
StateAfter six years of carefully designing and building every single aspect of our program together with the community, We have launched the Toofan Project in November 2023. Toofan means “thunder storm” and the project is a 5-year milestone based project which we will nurture our present group of talent from the community to represent India at 8 international championships like Asian and World U-20 Championships (2026 and 2028), Youth Olympics (2026 and 2029), World Championships (2027) and Olympics (2028). It seems audacious that a single community can achieve this but equipped with right skill and support - that’s the power a community holds. And India is the land of many such communities. We have a team, athletes and exceptional group of coaches with a collective experience of working 100+ Olympians
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Leadership Team
Demographics & Structure
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No. of Employees
6-20
M&E
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Internal, External Assessors
No
Policies
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Ethics and Transparency Policies
No
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Formal CEO Oversight & Compensation Policy
No
Political & Religious Declarations
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On Affiliation if any
No
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On Deployment Bias if any
No
Registration Details
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PAN Card
AAGCB9229B
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Registration ID
U74999KA2016NPL096870
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12A
AAGCB9229BE20206
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80G
AAGCB9229BF20221
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FCRA
Not Available
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CSR Registration Number
CSR00027338
Location
Other Details
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Type & Sub Type
Non-profit
Section 8 (formerly Section 25)
Website
Financial Details
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2022-23
IncomeRs.NoneExpensesRs.Admin ExpensesRs.NoneProgram ExpensesRs.NoneTip: Click on any value above to exclude it.