Two women in mekhela sador, the traditional Assamese attire, enthusiastically instructing a team of young boys playing football has caught the attention of the internet. Their actions seem no different from a professional coach, but they’re not. These women are just two of the many ‘soccer moms’ of Assam. It’s a rare visual seen in the popular sports culture of India. But they’re not a simple mirror of the american soccer mom trope, these highly involved sports moms have existed for long. In fact, they have existed in the small towns of upper Assam for at least two decades now.
NorthEast United FC, nicknamed The Highlanders, posted the clip on its social media platforms. The 22-second clip was from a young boys’ football match in Duliajan, a small oil town in Assam’s Dibrugarh district. The match was part of the Under-11 and Under-12 AIFF Blue Cubs League, which was being hosted by NorthEast United FC, one of the twelve clubs that form in the Indian Super League (ISL).
The short video opens with a woman in a pink mekhela sador – a two-piece attire draped like a saree. She is directing players to pass the ball forward. Her energy subsequently spikes as she claps, sprints and shouts instructions at the young team. As her short run ends, she joins another woman in mekhela-sador who was doing the same. Both of them then break into a smile.
In the small towns of upper Assam—the colloquial way of referring to districts along the upper bank of the Brahmaputra—women accompanying their children to stadiums for practice and during matches are part and parcel of their everyday life. It’s nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing new is that these women are finally getting their due recognition under the social media sun.
Mom? Coach? You tell us. 😅#NEUFC #StrongerAsOne #8States1United pic.twitter.com/m8eyrHUZOm
— NorthEast United FC (@NEUtdFC) April 3, 2024
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Cheering from the sidelines
As someone who grew up in the region, the clip was a nostalgia trip. In the late 2000s, the district’s indoor stadium was like a second home to my mother and many women like her. She would take my sibling for their badminton practice in the afternoon. There she would have the company of other moms, all accompanying their children for practice, everyday of the week. During summer vacation, these mothers would travel across the state for various district and state level competitions. The lone coach couldn’t always be present for a player when several matches happen simultaneously. Instead, it was the mothers who were on the sidelines, cheering and sometimes shouting instructions.
Lack of sports instructors often force these moms to evolve into ad-hoc coaches. However, the conditions that lay the ground for sports moms to exist in Assam perhaps is a combination of the pace of life, widespread gender equality within Assamese households and financial stability in small towns of the state.
If soccer moms in the US are suburban mothers who invest in their kids’ sporting dreams, in Assam, they’re from small towns. While fathers are busy with work, it’s often left to the sports moms to ensure their children don’t miss training and practice. It helps that in Assam one doesn’t expect a player to always end up as national or global champion. We see sports as a gateway to higher education and jobs through sports quotas.
I remember both working mothers as well as homemakers diligently taking their kids to the stadium, where they formed bonds outside their families, neighbourhood and workplace. These women always existed. Perhaps it was the absence of social media that stopped them from going viral.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)