When Ashok Rathod was 18, he began gathering children from Mumbai’s Ambedkar Nagar slum for weekend football matches. At the time, he had no great plan — just a desire to keep kids away from addiction, child marriage, and dropping out of school, which had consumed many of his own friends. What started as a small effort grew into the Oscar Foundation in 2010 — an organisation that today has touched thousands of young lives across India.

One of those lives is that of Yamini Nikam.

On a rainy afternoon in Mumbai, a shy Class 9 student walked nervously into a ground where the Oscar Foundation had gathered children. She didn’t know anyone.

She wasn’t even sure if football was her game. But when the coach handed her a ball and said, “Just kick it away from yourself and play,” something changed.

Three years later, football is no longer just a sport for Yamini — the ground has become her “second home”.

The rule that changed everything

Yamini studies in a government school in Mumbai and has always enjoyed going to class. Yet her idea of education changed when she joined the Oscar Foundation. Its strict rule — “No School, No Football” — taught her that passion and discipline must go hand in hand.

“Earlier, many kids thought that if they were good at football, studies didn’t matter. But Oscar showed us that school is our first priority,” she says.

With her mother’s encouragement, Yamini never thought of........

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