kolkata if things go according to plans underprivileged kids from over 68 countries will converge in the city to play football in 2016 the world cup soccer tournament for underprivileged kids organized by the scotland based foundation called homeless world cup has tied up with the nagpur based slum soccer a national initiative that has been working to use football as a platform to better the lives of children on the streets the world cup happened in amsterdam this year and the city has been chosen as next years venue because of the citys famed love affair with soccer and also because it is among those cities of the world with the largest slum kids concentration the preparations have already started since friday the city has been holding a slum soccer tournament that will end with the finals at don bosco park circus on tuesday hundreds of boys and girls belonging to slums of rajabazar tikiapara lake gardens monoharpukur gobindopur em bypass krishnagar and kanchrapara were divided into teams that have been playing soccer at the khalsa high school since friday to qualify for tuesdays finals this is part of the daan utsav that the country has been witnessing now of which the city has been a part for the past three years this is the first time that slum soccer is being organized as part of the daan utsav that is being organized by six partners all high placed corporate executives slum soccer is an initiative that started in nagpur a few years back by vijay barse who has created waves all over with this project that aims to get all street and slum children into a football programme to keep them off streets and an eventual trafficking the initiative has found partners in several cities and though it did make a small beginning last year in the city with two boys from the tikiapara slum having gone for training to manchester united this year it has reached the desired proportion slum soccer is a movement that cannot be restricted to one small center in one slum we have to create teams and weave together as many slums as possible so that underprivileged kids find a new meaning and enthusiasm in life we have been able to connect with at least five ngos working among underprivileged children in the city to bring players for the tournament we deliberately kept rules simple to make the maximum number of children participate said pk madappa one of the organisers of the ongoing initiative no boygirl distinction was made while teams were formed and all 17 teams had mixed players though age wise distinctions were made from 13 to 16 years ngos that have associated with slum soccer in kolkata are anando calcutta social project changemaker and premashree the idea is to teach them gender equality hence we mixed up boys and girls in each team explained madappa i was thrilled when they said that i would get a jersey and keds