Empowering girls across India through the Olympic values

At a small Anganwadi community centre in the heart of Madhya Pradesh, central India, children gather in a circle for an activity built around empathy and teamwork. Many of them were once shy and reserved, but now engage with enthusiasm. For Deepa Nayak, the worker leading the session, it’s a demonstration of how powerful Olympic values-based education can be. 

“There is one girl who used to be very quiet. When we did activities, she would sit quietly off to the side,” explains Nayak. “But, before our last activity, she came up to me and said: ‘I want to go first!’ This was a really wonderful moment for me.”

Anganwadis are women-run community centres that provide early childhood education, nutrition and basic health support to young children, adolescent girls and mothers, particularly in rural and marginalised communities. Through the work of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Reliance Foundation, OVEP has been integrated into day-to-day Anganwadi activities, where more than 1,200 sessions have been delivered.  

This collaboration also enabled the first widespread adaptation of the programme for early childhood education – an initiative launched across 120 Anganwadi centres in the Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh, with plans to expand to other regions of India in the future.  

Nayak has noticed subtle but meaningful changes since introducing OVEP sessions into her centre, with girls in particular increasingly stepping forward and guiding their peers. “We can see really strong leadership skills developing among the children. They give me hope that they can do well in sport and excel in their studies.” 

Women driving change at grassroots level

Guided by the vision of its founder, IOC Member Nita Ambani, the Reliance Foundation is one of the principal drivers of OVEP’s expansion in India over recent years.  

According to Sugandh Hamilton, the OVEP lead for the Reliance Foundation’s youth sports division, the programme’s strength lies in the leadership of women, often not just as educators but as role models and community champions. 

“From strategic leadership to on-the-ground implementation, women have been central to the programme’s growth and impact,” Hamilton explains. “What makes OVEP powerful is not just the framework or the values it promotes, but the way it creates space for women to lead, to speak and to shape change at grassroots level.” 

The trust placed in women as caregivers and their understanding of local realities helps ensure that activities resonate with families and communities. “Their lived understanding of local realities helps OVEP connect meaningfully with communities, making the programme both relevant and deeply impactful in practice,” adds Hamilton. 

Expanding opportunities in schools

While Anganwadis introduce the Olympic values to young children, OVEP is also reaching students across schools in several Indian states through programmes implemented by another key entity in OVEP’s expansion, the Abhinav Bindra Foundation Trust (ABFT) – founded by Olympic shooting champion and former IOC Athletes’ Commission member Abhinav Bindra.  

The ABFT has long embraced OVEP, delivering it in thousands of schools across the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Chandigarh UT, Odisha and Telangana, with women educators playing a vital role.

In Assam, women form the backbone of delivery. Out of the 40,200 OVEP-trained teachers in the region, more than 22,500 are women. Meanwhile, in Odisha, women make up 450 of the 1,000 OVEP-trained teachers. The initiatives in Chandigarh, Meghalaya and Telangana were introduced only recently but have already provided OVEP training to more than 200 female teachers. 

Nearly 50 per cent of the students participating in regular sports and values-based learning sessions are girls – with the proportion as high as 65 per cent in some areas. Traditional and strength-based sports are redesigned to encourage equal participation, while mixed-gender teams encourage cooperation and respect. Leadership roles are regularly rotated so that girls captain teams, facilitate activities and lead discussions.

Changing the conversation

“OVEP has been a truly transformative journey for me as an educator,” explains Upasana Bhuyan, a teacher and OVEP facilitator in Assam. “Earlier, my focus was mainly on academic growth. Discussions around topics like gender equality, respect and inclusion were rarely addressed in the classroom. Through OVEP, I found the confidence and platform to bring these important conversations into everyday learning.”  

Topics that were once rarely discussed are now part of structured dialogue in both sporting and classroom settings, while stories of inspirational female athletes and leaders are incorporated into lessons to encourage students to think differently about ambition and equality. Girls are participating more confidently in activities and discussions, while boys and girls increasingly learn to collaborate as equals. 

“Through OVEP, schools are building spaces where women educators lead with confidence and girls participate without hesitation,” says Karan Singh, Associate Vice-President of the ABFT. “Sport becomes more than physical activity – it becomes a platform for equality, voice and aspiration.” 

The positive impact of OVEP has been wide-ranging in India, engaging teachers, parents, athletes, coaches, and sports and education professionals, and reaching over 12 million children in more than 65,000 schools.