In the early days, most of the women footballers in Manipur faced discouragement from various quarters including their own parents. Being born and brought up in poor families, they couldn’t even afford to buy football kits. “I couldn’t even afford to buy a pair of half pants when I started to play during my school days. But somehow I managed to buy a pair with the savings from buying exercise books,” Thongram Tababi, India’s most sought after striker said. The family members of this 30 year old striker were not happy with her playing football during that time and they kept on telling her to stop playing and to study instead.
“However, my father and close relatives began to appreciate me after I received incentives in the regional and national football meets,” echoes Tababi of Arapti Mayai Leikai in Manipur’s Imphal West district.
Despite discouragement from various quarters and questions regarding the future of women in a game dominated my males; they managed to rise to the International level. “We faced such obstacles in our initial stages,” Kangujam Rebika, the best defender in the Indian women’s football team also recalled. India’s women football team captain Oinam Bembem, strikers N Geetarani and H Thoi who are all working in the State Police Department also echoed a similar sentiment about the initial stage of playing football in their respective localities.
Sharing her feelings, Oinam Bembem, India’s women football team captain recalled, “Initially my father wasn’t interested in sports. He often asked me to concentrate on my studies. Sometimes he even got angry at me because of my passion for football. But when I represented my country in the year 1995, my father started encouraging me to play more football. From the beginning of my career, my mother was always in favour of my playing football. Today whatever I have achieved, the credit must go to my mother”.
This 30 year old captain started to play along with the local boys when she was in class VII. The same year she managed to play in the national arena in the sub junior category.
She says that joining the Manipur Police Sporting Club has helped her in continuing her football career. “I finally joined the Indian team in 1995. Five years later I joined the Manipur Police as a woman constable,” she narrates.
For Bembem, joining the Police Department as a constable under the sports quota enabled her to stay fit with a regular income which helps her assist her mother with the financial burden of running a family after her father passed away some time ago.
After her football matches, 27 year old defender Rebika helps her 57 year old mother Kangujam Chaobi in weaving clothes at their Bashikhong home in Imphal East district along with her younger sister. Until she joined the Police Department as a constable in April 2007, she wove clothes at her mother’s loom to earn a living. “With those earning, I remember, the day she bought her first football boots” Chaobi said.
Bembem and her football colleagues in the Police Department also fulfill their policing duty in this insurgency hit state. Striker Tababi who joined the Manipur Police Department 11 years ago said, “We go for VVIP duty most of the time.”
Most of the players who work as constables are sent as security cover during Republic Day, Independence Day, Patroit’s day and whenever there are VVIP visits to the state. “Otherwise they are engaged in the play fields round the year,” says H Joykumar, Coach of the Manipur Police Women football team. “Joining the police team is the turning point for these footballers,” he claims. In the police team, they continue their regular practice sessions which help them maintain their performance.
Most of the women players need good financial support for their future prospects. As there is no other job opportunity unlike in the metros, they are compelled to join the State Police Department under the sports quota whenever offers come around.
“I joined the police force to make sure that I can play for a longer period,” asserts Rebika. Besides this, she is taking care of the financial burden of her 6 member family. Like her, other players also financially support their respective families with their small salaries from the Police Department.

Sobhapati Samom