As evening slowly slips into dark, the mini-stadium in Bijapur is alive. The field has more dust than grass, and the running feet on it kick up a storm. The ground may not be green, but there is no shortage of colour. There are small cones, orange, red and blue, marking the playing area. And then there are the children wearing studs running around, each with a story of his own. Of poverty, of violence, and for every evening between 4 and 6.30 here, of hope. Nearly every district headquarters in Chhattisgarh has a mini-stadium,used for cricket and football. In May last year, the administration of Bijapur, among the districts worst affected by left-wing violence in the country, decided to build in one such mini-stadium the Bijapur Sports Academy. Eight months later, it has over 240 students, training in 10 sports, under head coaches accredited by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). Of them, 17 have made it to the national level and four have won medals. At the state level, the medals tally of Bijapur Sports Academy trainees stands at 45.