Image : Representational
Young minds do bring in fresh ideas . And the same goes for the talented Vir Shrinagesh , the energetic founder of EduKick Naari. Well someone who is national athlete and a student of Pathways School Gurgaon and having played in AIFF U-15 and U-17 categories launching a project with this goal has taken all by surprise .
And in time time when Nari Shakti slogan is on one’s lips the vision of Edukick Naari is an apt one : no girl should have to give up her passion for sport in order to secure her future in education. By channelizing medals and matches into stepping stones towards higher studies, the project aims to help rewrite the futures of young female athletes across Northern India, levelling the playing field.
This noble initiative runs through structured workshops across NGOs in northern India, where-in students are introduced to and informed of the sports quota system in Indian colleges and how to crack it. The sessions cover everything from eligibility criteria and required documentation to the list of colleges offering quotas and their respective application processes and timelines. Moreover, it culminates in each girl getting the chance to receive personalised guidance, thereby charting their path forwards by combining sports with an academic background.
In India, many young female athletes find themselves at a crossroads when it comes to higher education. While sports quotas in colleges exist as a pathway for them through this tradeoff, the persistent lack of awareness and structured guidance often forces a choice for these athletes,
between continuing to pursue their sports or diverting their focus solely to academics. EduKick Naari works to bridge this gap between sporting prowess and higher education opportunities amongst these young female athletes.
So far, EduKick Naari has directly mentored over 100 young women across various NGOs, including Khel Khel Mein Foundation (KKMF), Dribble Academy, and Mera India Mera Adhikar (MIMA). Furthermore, the initiative has also developed and distributed a manual in regional languages, offering a practical guidebook towards manoeuvring the sports quota process.
As of Sept 2025, This handbook has been adopted by six NGO centres across four Northern states (Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan). For this work, the project was awarded amongst the Top30 in India in the Deakin University NextGen Changemakers Competition (2024), and has qualified for the second round of the Arc Global Sustainability Awards (August 2025).
