Women and Girls in Sports

Play, Empower, Prosper, Repeat.

Reliance Foundation's commitment to sports is driven by its belief that sports serve as a powerful catalyst to empower women to break barriers, build leadership skills, and drive positive change, especially among children from vulnerable communities.

Reliance Foundation Youth Sports

A country-wide multi sporting platform that has seen participation from over 10,000 educational institutes and 1,30,000 young athletes since inception. The best athletes receive scholarships and an opportunity to be scouted by professional football clubs and the Indian national team.

Nearly 20,000 of the total number of participating athletes in 2019-20 were girls and 83 of these girls have been awarded scholarships. RFYS has also partnered with the All India Football Federation to scout the best performing girl athletes from our competitions for the Indian national team.

Elevating India's Olympic Aspirations

This initiative began in 2019 with an aim to improve the country’s performance at Olympics and other prestigious international events. Reliance Foundation is supporting elite athletes that have potential under its Athlete Scholarship programme and works closely with coaches, the government and sports federations to support these athletes to enhance performance and enable them to win medals for India at the International stage. Out of the current 14 scholarships offered, eight are offered to girl athletes - Ridhi Phor (Archery), Aditi Bhatt, Unnati Hooda, Palak Arora (Badminton), Tilottama Sen (Shooting), Manika Batra (Table Tennis) and Sneha Soren, Jhilli Dalabehera (Weightlifting).

A Game-Changing Partnership with AFI

In 2022, Reliance announced a long-term partnership with Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to enable the holistic growth of Athletics in India. The partnership aims to discover, nurture and develop Indian athletes from across the country and provide them with world-class facilities, coaching and sports science and medicine support by leveraging the Reliance Foundation ecosystem including the Odisha Reliance Foundation Athletics High-Performance Centre and Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital.

The partnership will have a special focus on girl athletes and aim to bridge the gender divide and enable them to achieve their dreams. Reliance Foundation also runs the RF Junior NBA Programme, which is a school-based youth basketball programme that has reached out to more than 11 million youngsters of which more than 45% of the registrations are girls. Some of the athletes identified and supported by Reliance Foundation are already on their journeys to becoming world-class performers.

Empowering Tomorrow's Basketball Stars

Reliance Foundation's RF Junior NBA Programme, a school-based youth basketball initiative, has reached out to more than 11 million youngsters, with over 45% of registrations coming from girls. This programme aims to groom the basketball stars of tomorrow, providing them with valuable skills and opportunities.

Through these initiatives, Reliance Foundation is not only promoting sports but also nurturing the potential of young athletes, especially girls, to excel in their chosen fields and contribute to the nation's sporting success.