ANANTNAG: Hailing from a small village in Anantnag town, armed with education and dedication, Sajad Ahmad Mir has become a ray of hope for many female students who want to excel in sports and make it their career choices. His journey from a sports student to national level coach is reshaping the lives of many students through games.
Mir, a Physical Education Teacher in the department of Youth Services & Sports District Anantnag believes that success is not about gaining leadership but it is about empowering people through sports. “It is said that the true measure of success is the number of people touched and transformed by one’s success,” he is living his life to this definition of success.
Nagpur International marathon player, National Level player in Netball, Softball and State Level in cricket and former National Level coach of the cricket team of JKUT, Mir has many certificates in his kitty.
Starting his journey as a Physical education Teacher in the year April 2010 from GMS Monghall, Sajad Ahmed was later transferred to Govt. Girls Model Higher Secondary School Ranibagh in the heart of Anantnag town.
Under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao program launched by the Government of India in 2015, Mir initiated a curriculum for the students, under which he transformed the lives of thousands of students by encouraging them to join Sports, NCC and other curricular activities. He continues to encourage and inspire young sports enthusiasts in the valley.
Recalling the earlier days of his career as a physical education teacher, he remembers how schools lacked infrastructure despite students being very active and passionate about sports and NCC. “Despite having no formal training the students played very well. Schools did not have any big sports ground and the basketball, volleyball, badminton court’s too were in dilapidated condition,” he recalls.
Mir, a dedicated mentor and guide, decided to take over and guide school children to the best of his ability. When he started training students, he noticed that despite having exceptionally good potential there was a lack of participation by girls. Female students in the valley were surrounded by stereotypes and lacked encouragement to join sports, NCC and cultural activities.
Addressing the concerns about women empowerment and gender bias, Mir decided to pledge his life to this cause by empowering female students through sports. In order to motivate students to take the lead in sports, he organized awareness camps in different games in his school and fulfilled his duty as a coach. So far, he has successfully organized more than 500 plus awareness campaigns in sports category in remote villages of Kashmir Valley which remained unconnected to roads, due to extreme terrain conditions.
Assisted by his colleagues, he walked miles through the forest to reach isolated villages and spread awareness. “In order to convince and persuade parents to send their wards for national level games, our team conducted a door to door campaign, convincing parents to encourage and support their daughters to join Sports, NCC and cultural activities. We organized many sports tournaments so that government schools could find potential players, organized them into a team, and trained them to play at Zone, District, UT and ultimately at National Level”, he proudly said.
Mir has played a major role in organizing softball, netball, throw Ball, Basketball, Cricket, Wood Ball, Mini-Golf etc. competitions at district, UT and National Level or locally which were earlier male dominated.
It was Mir, who broke the stereotypes and facilitated 1st ever competition for female participants in the year 2011 on the eve of National Sports Day (29th August 2011). His efforts were successful as female participation in sports competitions, NCC and cultural activities normalized by 2015 in the region.
His students have brought laurels at the District, UT and National Level in Cricket, Netball, Throw Ball, Basketball, Softball, Chess, Kho-Kho, Table Tennis, Martial Art, Karate, NCC and cultural activities and are grateful to his mentorship.
Meanwhile, he continues to transform the lives of female students, Govt. School Students in the region. These Girls are an inspiration to hundreds of Young people in the valley who aspire to excel in sports. One among them is Ruby Syed, a Ranji Cricket Player. Recently she was called by Gujarat Giants for Women IPL Trials.
“What I have achieved is only because of my mentor Sajad Sir & I would not forget how he changed my entire life” says Ruby Syed. She is presently Ranji Player and a coach for Young Girls in Sports.
Ayman Mukhtar credits Sajad Sir for introducing her to softball. “I have participated in more than 30 UT Level, University Level Championships, and 3 Nationals in recent years. Whatever I have learned and achieved I owe it all to him,” she said,
Ayman recalls, “How sir would motivate them during morning assembly to participate in sports, NCC and cultural activities. He would tell stories of sports women like the Phogat sisters, PT Usha, PV Sindhu, Sania Mirza, Saina Nehwal to inspire young girls.”
Fiza Bareed has 25 local championships and several nationals in cricket and has won a Gold Medal in Toy Making Competition UT Level. “I was inspired by students of Mir and her sister Danishta Bareed who has played 2 Nationals under Mir in the discipline of Softball has decided to learn Cricket.”
Fiza Nisar is a 3 time National Level player of two games Tennis Cricket and Chess. Also a ‘C’ certificate holder in NCC and an adventure sports lover. She has played several local and state level championships since then and is a National Chess and Tennis Cricket Player with two successful Medals.
Mehak Yousuf is a permanent member of JK Women Cricket Team and a Ranji player. She aspires to participate in women IPL at National Level and International Cricket. She says, “It is time to break the stereotype that girls cannot play sports, especially games which involve strength training. If I can do it, so can other girls. Women are as strong as men and can perform equally well if an opportunity is provided.”
Sajad Ahmad Mir has no intention to stop. He wants to continue his goal of empowering girls through sports. He believes that education is beyond academics.
“Sports teach us the importance of patience, resilience, consistency, and hard work in its true essence. Traditionally girls are not expected or encouraged to play sports but times have changed and now more women are participating in sports than ever before, but there is still a long way to go,” Mir exclaimed.
Emphasizing the importance of sports in life, he believes that apart from being a fun recreational activity and a way to stay active, participating in sports is a way to gain important social, leadership skills and gain self-confidence.