LUCKNOW, Aug. 27 -- He gets Rs 9,000 as salary for discharging duties of a physical education instructor at Composite School Sonadih in Ballia, but spends most of it on the girls of his school, to help them play football and other sports. Meet Ram Prakash, who has even developed a football ground in his own field in Tehsil Bilthara Road, Post Chayanpur Guloura, in Ballia. Today, Ram Prakash has been imparting training to 40 girls, aged between 10 and 20 years. For this, he has made a ground, complete with wire fencing. It has been challenging for him to arrange for the education, medical expenses, jerseys and boots of the girls, but he is constantly trying. Ram Prakash belongs to a farmer family, who has a little land and he makes a living by farming. But his mission is to help the girls of his village earn a name at the national and international level. Only last week, his much-awaited dream came true as one of his trainees, Priya, a defender and resident of village Tanguniya, made it to the Indian team for the ongoing SAFF Under-17 Women's Football Championship in Bhutan. Priya has played the nationals three times and her father is a rural labourer, with just a tin roof over their house . Two other girls, Neeti and Sunaina, have also played in the national championship. "It's a great satisfaction to me as it's my victory against long struggle against conservative thinking of the people in my village, where everyone was against the girls playing football or any other sport, sporting T-shirts and shorts," said Ram Prakash on Tuesday, a day after India thrashed hosts Bhutan 8-0 to complete their third win in the event on Monday. "It shows the change in mentality of the villagers here as many of them contributed to the air ticket of Priya, when she left for the national camp just before the SAFF Championship. Till date, I haven't even seen an airplane close to me with my bare eyes, but we all were determined to give Priya the best," said Ram Prakash. Despite cricket being his first love, Ram Prakash fell in love with football only a few years ago when he saw his school girls doing very badly in the basic education sports meet. He decided to prepare girls in his village, Sonadih, to play soccer, but due to the conservative thinking of the village, it was not easy and even his elder brother was the first to protest when he asked the girls to play wearing shorts. In 2018, Ram Prakash invited a women's kabaddi team to the village and organised a state kabaddi competition. Thirty-four teams and 500 women participated in it and in the next year, he organised women's football, which changed the thinking of the villagers and his work became a little easier. "I chose football as it is cheaper than cricket. The families in the village are not able to afford cricket for the girls. This wasn't easy as no parent was ready to send his daughter for sports. But once they saw girls of other district performing well, they too agreed to send their daughters for training," he said, adding, "So far, a over two dozen girl footballers from my centre have played for Uttar Pradesh in the national championships of different age categories and Priya has been the first one to play at the international level." "Certainly, Priya's success will inspire more families in the village to back their daughters into sports, especially football, as now they feel that through sports their daughters can bring home name, fame as well as money too," he added. Ram Prakash and his journey in sport is an inspiration for all, of how passion and hard work can lead to success in any field....