‘Ultimate’ In Gender Equality, Fair Play 

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Boys and girls belonging to Pardhi community in the city and its adjoining areas are learning and playing an international game Ultimate Frisbee or Ultimate.  Ultimate is different from other organised games and sports in more ways than one.

To begin with, it is played by boys and girls together and secondly, it has no referee or umpire. Players call their own fouls. It, thus, promotes gender equality and develops a sense of fair play. The matches were played on a ground in Neelbad on Sunday.

“We can’t rent proper grounds. They cost a lot, thousands of rupees, and moreover, people are reluctant to allow us to use their grounds,” said Abhishek Pawar, one of the organisers.  One of the players, Jiya Pawar, said she enjoyed the game immensely.

Jiya is 16 and is a student of class three. The daughter of a rag-picker mother and labourer-father, Jiya started studying quite late. What she liked the most about the game is that boys and girls play together. Jiya was among the 14 members of Travellers team, which stood third in the tournament.

The Travellers defeated the Defenders. The final was played between Air Defenders and Back Handers, in which the former emerged victorious. The tournament was organised by Muzzle – an organisation of Pardhi youth of 19 to 28 years. Most members of Muzzle eke out a living by working as waiters in parties, making diaries, bags etc. 

“As a child, I used to pick rags. I was a school dropout but I have resumed studies and have just cleared Class 10,” said Abhishek, who has been playing the game for three years and had also participated in a tournament in Gujarat about a year back.   

All that is needed to play the game is a metallic disk and an open ground. Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in opposite team’s zone. The game was invented by an American in 1960s, he said.  Pardhis is a denotified nomadic tribe, which was classified as a criminal tribe by the British. Though they have been denotified, they remain on police radar. They are mostly uneducated and rarely find a decent job due to stigma attached to their community.