Kolkata might be busy with the festival. But 20 odd girls do not have a holiday. They are busy with their training in both morning and evening sessions. They seem determined to clinch the women's football championship title in the forthcoming National Games. It is difficult to remember when the last Bengal women's football team won the gold medal in the National Games to be held in Goa. 

Dipankar Biswas, the former East Bengal and Mohun Bagan forward and Bengal’s former skipper in the Santosh Trophy also is the coach of these girls. 

Biswas who has acquired an A-licence coaching degree had the first coaching assignment of the Bengal's girls' team for the recently-concluded under-17 girls' national championship in Odisha. Bengal was the victim of injustice and forced to crash out of the competition from their group even though the girls delivered an impressive show. 

Talking about the gains from that competition, under Dipankar's tutelage, a couple of girls like Sajida Khatun, and Sanchita Roy came in prominence. Sajida was the top scorer for Bengal in the under-17 girls’ national championship.

Before the National Games, Biswas when asked about his desire said, “Look, when you are the coach of Bengal you should only think of winning the championship. But at the same time, my ambition is to reshape the women footballers." 

"My observation is that the women's football in Bengal is a little disorganized. There is no dearth of talent. But they need to be technically improved. I try to develop that part in the training thoroughly.”

Bengal is grouped with stronger teams like Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Manipur. They will start their campaign against Tamil Nadu on 28th October. The coach however seems optimistic that the girls will not give up ultimately. The team has already taken part in two practice matches against the men's team of Mohammedan AC and the coach revealed, "The girls had an impressive show." 

Dipankar praised IFA a lot saying, “I must mention IFA secretary Anirban Dutta’s name, the vice-president Saurav Paul and the president Ajit Banerjee’s name for their extensive support. They organized the residential preparatory camp for us. They provided whatever I asked for even amidst their busyness in the ongoing festival. I can only say that our preparation would have been better if we had obtained a few more days for training.”