Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): An international game called Ultimate Frisbee or Ultimate has changed the lives of over 150 Pardhi and Gond children. It drew them to education and took them away from addictions and beggars. These children living in and around Bhopal were once cloth pickers and drug addicts. Invented by an American in the 1960s, Ultimate is different from other organized games and sports in more ways than one.

It is played by boys and girls together without referees or umpires. Players call their own fouls. It promotes gender equality and instills a sense of fair play. All that is needed to play is a metallic disc and an open ground. Points are awarded by passing the puck to a teammate in the opposing team’s zone. Their team is called the Flying Teetars.

Team captain Abhishek learned the game with the help of YouTube videos after he was introduced to it by an activist associated with an NGO called Muskan. Then he went to Delhi where he learned the nuances of the game for four months. On his return, he persuaded boys and girls in his basti to come together and form a team.

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The team played a Section Tournament in 2019 where they competed with teams from all over the country. And it won appreciation for excelling without the help of a trainer and no access to a proper ground. For the past five years, the team has played tournaments in various locations even as its members continued to study and persuade others to learn the game and play it.

Abhishek was approached by a team from Madras to play in an international tournament in Malaysia. But there was no money. In the end, crowd funding helped him fly to Malaysia in July this year. Of the 150 children who had stopped begging and picking rags after they started playing the games, 20 have passed class 12 and are studying at Azim Premji University. “I am happy that the children of our community who could not get out of the slums are playing and studying across the country,” Abhishek said.