International Women’s Day special: Meet Gulafsha Ansari the gamechanger with a vision 

For more than a century, International Women’s Day has marked an occasion to celebrate changemakers in society who have fought bravely for women's rights across the globe.

While some have struggled silently for a change or from behind the scenes, a young Gulafsha Ansari has been fearless in her demand for a fairer world.

Gulafsha Ansari is a former India Under-15 football player and is now an activist and licensed football coach. 

She lived in a cramped home in Dharavi, Mumbai, an area considered one of the biggest slums in the world, and started campaigning for girls’ rights to play at the age of 14. 

“I lived in a locality where growing up as a girl meant we had to face a unique set of challenges not faced by others,” Gulafsha Ansari told Olympics.com. “Not many girls made themselves heard.” 

The desire to help the girls in her locality through football earned her plaudits and enabled her to go to places like South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the London 2012 Olympics as a junior ambassador.

It was a far cry from where she came from. In Dharavi, the only games allowed for girls were indoor games. There was no reason for them to go outside. “So all girls gathered in one house and that was that,” Gulafsha Ansari recalled.

“Dharavi is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. The few open spaces in our area were also always heavily in control of the boys.” It was a matter of concern for the young girls’ parents.

Gulafsha was determined to change things. There were several challenges and no funding either but she soldiered on.

“My mother wanted me safe but never put me in chains so to speak,” Gulafsha explained. “So one day I thought to myself ‘what if I started a football programme where girls could just step out of the house once a week, and I would look after them?’

“That's how the concept of Dreaming In Slums came into existence and my coaching career began,” Gulafsha said.

In 2011, a 14-year-old Gulafsha Ansari convinced a few parents and got about six girls enrolled in the weekly programme. Today, Gulafsha, through her Dreaming In Slums initiative, imparts necessary life skills and football coaching to over 100 girls from economically-challenged backgrounds.

“All of this started without much funding back in the day. Today, we try to bring in daughters of single mothers who do housekeeping jobs but don’t want their girls to do the same. The intention is to create leaders and role models in the community because not all can go on and become professional football players.”

Gulafsha added that the idea was to not only train these girls for football but to make them battle-ready for the real world.

“Through the leadership programme, we encourage girls to come up with innovative projects that can benefit society,” Gulafsha Ansari informed.

“We also teach photography - a skill that can help them get into any field, not just sports. Through scholarships, we train girls and help them with the knowledge of how to acquire coaching licences and other stuff.

“We make it happen through football but this is definitely not just football,” Gulafsha, who recently graduated from a sports management programme in Germany, explained.

Junior ambassador at the London 2012 Olympics

Gulafsha’s Dreaming In Slums initiative earned her a ticket to the London 2012 Olympics. The news of a 15-year-old girl from Dharavi going to London as an ambassador broke the internet in 2012 and Gulafsha became an overnight celebrity.

“I got very excited, naturally, because London was my dream place,” Gulafsha said. “I also didn’t know how huge it was. When I saw people whom I didn’t know cheering for me, it felt like a massive success personally.”

Gulafsha Ansari was sponsored for the London 2012 Olympics through former US women’s football player Julie Foudy’s leadership programme. Julie Foudy is a two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and a two-time Olympic gold medallist.

“I got to see Usain Bolt blaze through the tracks from the Olympic Stadium in London and watch volleyball and football matches. Those moments I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Gulafsha said.

International Women’s Day message

Gulafsha Ansari feels that though women are getting good exposure in cities like Mumbai, there is a lot of scope for improvement across India and the world. 

“My message on Women’s Day is for the women to continue dreaming but also remember to lift girls who need upliftment. Without the efforts of women who have the courage to take on the world, the women’s rights movement will not be the same.”

To those sitting in the administration, Gulafsha said: “While we are seeing great success stories coming out from the rural areas, my message to those in power would be that we need to make policies to ensure that the current generation of girls continues to make rapid progress. Enough platforms should be made available so that the girls who don’t participate in physical activities become a minority instead of the other way around.”