As Mumbai slowly stirs to life on a Sunday morning, the Wings Sports Centre in Bandra echoes with laughter, shouts and the thud of footballs being kicked.
Among the players is 49-year-old Dawn Almeida, who once spent her weekends indoors staring at an empty calendar.
Almeida moved from Dubai to Mumbai in 2020, but struggled to make new friends as the pandemic kept her locked inside for two years.
One morning, as she was scrolling on social media, she came across Sisters in Sweat (SiS), a women-only sporting community. It changed everything for her.
As someone who played multiple sports growing up — a "jack of all trades," as she calls herself — Almeida knew SiS would become a permanent fixture in her plans.
What she did not expect was the friendship and sisterhood that came as part of it.
"I had an inhibition joining a new group, [even] though it's all women," Almeida says.
"I'm not young, so I was [wondering] if there was going to be all these teenagers and youngsters, and if I really wanted to go. But right from the first day, I felt like I fit in.
"We headed for breakfast after the first session of football and it's become a ritual ever since — now my entire friendship circle is from SiS."
SiS has become a lifeline for thousands of women like Almeida in India, helping build a rare space where sport turns into an experience of liberation and camaraderie.
Sundays in Mumbai are for 'sweaty sisters' sessions
The story of SiS fittingly began with a football session between friends in Bengaluru, an hour and a half flight south-east of Mumbai, in 2017.
Swetha Subbiah, a fitness instructor and former hockey player, had a friend named Shonali who wanted to learn how to play football.
Subbiah reached out to Tanvie Hans, her friend and former professional football player who had played in the UK and on the Karnataka state team, and asked if she would run a short tutorial.
Subbiah assumed it would be a one-off session.
"I expected maybe three or four of my friends to show up, but 17 showed up that morning on Sunday," she said.
"We followed that up with breakfast, created a WhatsApp group and were just having such a great time that some of the girls were like, 'Let's do this every weekend if it's possible.'"
What was supposed to be a casual introduction to the game then became a Sunday ritual.
Subbiah handled the warm-up drills, and Hans the technical aspects, and together they ended each session with a friendly match, followed by breakfast.
By the end of 2019, the WhatsApp group had exploded. Women Subbiah had never met started showing up for the sessions.
"That's when I realised this had become something bigger than anything we'd imagined," she said.
An amateur league approached Subbiah, offering to sponsor a tournament for SiS, which at the time was one of India's largest community of women playing football recreationally.
Realising its potential, Subbiah and Hans went all in, leaving their jobs to focus on building the community full-time.
The name Sisters in Sweat came about by accident, Subbiah says.
"One day on our WhatsApp group someone said: 'My brother asked if I was going to the sweaty sisters session.' Another replied, 'Tell him we're Sisters in Sweat!' It just came out of nowhere. But it stuck."
The name encapsulated everything Subbiah and Hans wanted SiS to be: a space where women could play, laugh, move and sweat without fear of judgement.
Today, SiS has nearly 15,000 members across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi, and is preparing to expand to other Indian cities and even overseas.
They now offer sessions in multiple sports including football, basketball, cricket, badminton, pickleball, yoga, dance, and more recently, touch rugby.
'Mama, do boys play football as well?'
Over the years, SiS has collected several stories that reveal both its impact on women's lives, and influence on how the next generation sees sport.
One woman joined the group after losing her husband, hoping to stay connected to his love for football, and to help her get through what she described as the hardest time of her life.
Then there's the story that makes Subbiah laugh every time she tells it:
"The friend who started it all — Shonali — had a two-year-old when we began. Years later, when her son saw a women's match Tanvie was playing, he turned to her and asked, 'Mama, do boys play football as well?'"
At SiS sessions, ability levels don't matter.
For women like Priyanka Kamidi, 32, who grew up in Pathapatnam, a small town on the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border, football wasn't even on the radar.
A single session with SiS drew her into regular play, and just as importantly, the post-game breakfasts, where she met Almeida and others.
Like many members, Kamidi returns as much for the community as for the activity itself.
Another key element of SiS' appeal is the safe, supportive environment it creates, allowing women to play without the fear of judgement.
"There's a male gaze they're worried about," Subbiah says.
"But with other women, there's shared experience and bonding. Whether someone's on her period or just nervous, nobody cares about that here."
This sense of safety has encouraged competition without toxicity.
"Even when we host tournaments, everyone understands we're here for something bigger — to enjoy, celebrate movement, and support each other," Subbiah says.
SiS looking to expand to regional, rural areas
Each SiS session costs between 200 to 600 Indian rupees (under $10), depending on the sport and skill level.
While this may sound relatively affordable in Australian terms, it is less accessible for women outside major urban centres in India.
As SiS approaches its eighth anniversary, Subbiah and Hans are looking to expand into regional and rural areas.
"We've seen the impact that this community has had on women in urban India, where seemingly we're far more privileged in terms of the rights and the freedoms that we enjoy," Subbiah says.
"What we really want to do is bring this to underprivileged communities where we know the impact will be so much bigger."
They also hope to reach younger girls, with an aim to empower.
Subbiah refers to the fact most women in C-suite positions — 94 per cent according to a study by Ernst & Young — have played sport at some point in their lives.
"That tells you how sport builds leadership," Subbiah says.
"Can we bring that to girls earlier, set them up for success? That's the dream."
In India, women occupy only 19 per cent of such roles, with Subbiah arguing sport could be the way to get that number up.
Men, Manchester City cheering SiS community on
Though SiS is an all-women space, men have been part of the journey in unexpected ways.
In a country where sport has rarely been a space designed for women — often constrained by safety concerns, societal expectations and limited opportunities — the encouragement of brothers, husbands and boyfriends cheering from the sidelines carries significance.
"We thought that was such a beautiful thing, because for these women to be able to come out and play, they need the support back at home," Subbiah says.
"If the woman has children at home, she certainly needs her husband to step in for those few hours so that she can come out and play.
"So we don't see men as a problem in any way, if anything, we see them as being great allies in our overall goal to just build a healthier India."
The involvement of so many brothers and husbands gave rise to a spin-off called Sisters and Misters, where women and men play together once a week in select sports.
SiS also has trained coaches — including men — for most of the sports, ensuring that every session balances fun with skill-building and steady progress.
The SiS movement hasn't gone unnoticed abroad, either.
In 2023, Manchester City, the Premier League club, collaborated with SiS to share its story globally as part of its Same Goals campaign.
It was the first time the club had partnered with an Indian sporting community.
'Freedom without judgement'
Back in Mumbai, Almeida's weekends now revolve around her SiS sessions.
She attends the ones on Saturdays that are for intermediates, as well as the beginner session on Sundays. She has also coached a few sessions now.
"On Saturdays, it's people already in love with football, trying to get better," she says.
"I tell them that we're not going to play in the World Cup tomorrow, but we're running, learning, pushing ourselves. On Sundays, it's girls who are just exercising or curious. Our job is to make them fall in love with the game."
For Almeida, who holds black belts in martial arts and weapons, and grew up playing tennis, basketball, and athletics, SiS offered freedom without judgement.
"I've always been overweight, but I've always been active," she says.
"I'm not a gym person or a runner. I like movement. What I love about SiS is that I can choose. Football one day, pickleball another, yoga or dance the next. Everyone just cheers you on.
"It's perfect."
Sruthi Ravindranath is a journalist and sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. Her work explores the intersection of sport and gender, climate and culture.
She is part of ABC International Development's Women in News and Sport Initiative, funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Team Up program.
