Volleyball Foundation
How a hundred volleyballs in rural Assam became a lesson for the global sport movement
When Abhijit Bhattacharya (Abhi) founded the Brahmaputra Volleyball League (BVL) during the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea was simple: distribute 100 volleyballs to villages across rural Assam so children had the chance to play. Five years on, that idea has grown into an incredible community-led movement – and this month, its story reached a global audience at the IWG Global Summit on Women and Sport.
A voice for rural communities on a world stage
Abhi joined an international panel titled “Beyond the Breakthrough: What’s Next for the International Women and Sport Movement”, alongside Professor Dr Elizabeth Pike (University of Hertfordshire and Director of WISH), Dr Anita White CBE (Co-Founder of Women in Sport and the IWG), Carol Caroline Wanjira (Treasurer of the Kenya Wheelchair Basketball Federation) and Po Chun Liu (Founder and CEO, Taiwan Sport Forward Association).
Speaking alongside pioneers of the international women and sport movement, Abhi brought a grassroots perspective shaped by the villages of Northeast India.
“No matter where we come from, the emotions are the same,” he told the audience. “Every child lives to play a game – but not every child is fortunate enough to get a ball, a place to play, or someone to coach them.”
His message to the Summit was one of trust in communities. Start small, keep costs low, and people will come, he explained – because human nature is to contribute, to belong, and to help others
The BVL story: changing what is possible in rural Assam
In a presentation he also gave during the Summit, Abhi shared how the BVL has become far more than a volleyball league. For many children in Assam, one of India’s most underserved states, it is their first access to organised sport, offering coaching, competition, health education and, for some, their first journey beyond their own village.
Crucially, boys and girls play on the same platform, with the same visibility and the same sense of pride. From the outset, the BVL set out to challenge deep-rooted cultural barriers for girls – and today, girls from the league are making history, representing Assam and reaching the quarterfinals of the Junior National Championship.
What brought the presentation to life were the stories of the people who make up the BVL. Abhi told the audience about the league’s first ever female coach – a woman who defied cultural expectations to take up the role after attending a week-long course he ran on the BVL and its mission. Her journey, he explained, is opening the door for other women in Assam to see coaching and leadership as something within their reach.
He also spoke of a young girl with a troubled home life who has become one of the BVL’s real stars – a player for whom the league has provided not just a sport, but a community and a family she would not otherwise have had.
And the BVL’s impact on girls extends well beyond the court. Abhi shared the league’s work on sanitary and menstrual health education – breaking taboos in rural communities and helping to ensure that girls are not forced to step away from sport, or school, because of a lack of knowledge and support.
Since 2024, the BVL has been a certified project of the FIVB Volleyball Foundation, and in 2025 it entered a landmark partnership with UNICEF, training young people across 13 districts as community ambassadors on issues including child marriage and school dropout.
Returning home with new ideas
For Abhi, last week’s Summit was as much about learning as sharing.
“Standing in a room with people from every corner of the world, all working to open doors for women and girls through sport, was incredible,” he said. “The Summit has opened my mind to new possibilities. I return to Assam with my head full of ideas and my heart even more certain of one thing: it doesn’t take perfect infrastructure to change a child’s life. Sometimes it takes one ball, one net, one village.”
His closing message to the Summit captured the spirit of the movement: wherever we are in the world, we must keep asking who is still being left out – and how sport can bring them in.
