BREAKING BARRIERS: Nim Diki Bhutia and Sudeshna Lama become first women football referees of Sikkim

GANGTOK, 12 June: Entering the male dominated preserve of football are two Sikkimese women - Nim Diki Bhutia and Sudeshna Lama - not as players but as referees.
Already in the panel of referees as trainees in the ongoing 2nd Division S-League Football tourney at Palzor Stadium, the two are set to become torch-bearers in this field in Sikkim. The duo have now become the first women to officiate any football match in the state.
“I am grateful to the Sikkim Football Association (SFA) for providing me with the unique chance of supervising the tournament as trainee referee”, says 21-year-old Sudeshna Lama. She expressed her desire to become a national level referee in future.
While Nim Diki expresses that it is high time for women to come out to grab the opportunity and scope in this field at both the state and national level. She urged other women folk to come forward to take refereeing as a profession and said “I am most willing to train girls aspiring to take up refereeing as a profession.”
It may be mentioned here that both had attended a month long Women’s Soccer Referee course at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh few months earlier. It was conducted by All India Football Federation (AIFF) under the Project Future India 2012 of the Asian Football Confederation.