FIFA organised U20 women's world cup in 2002 for the first time, and for qualification from Asian teams, only the finalist from AFC U-19 Women's Championship is allowed to enter into the tournament, which was also the same criteria for the next edition and since 2006 the top three teams from AFC U19 championships would be allowed to enter into U20 world cup.

Indian girls lost to eventual champions Japan by 9−0 and South Korea by 4−0, only had a win against Guam by 6−0 but did not help much to move forward.

[4] For 2006 edition the qualification round started for AFC U19 Women's Championship, where India easily qualified, defeating Kyrgyzstan by 7−0 and Bangladesh by 9−0 which was their biggest win that time.

[5] At the 2007 qualification India lost two games in the group stage against Myanmar by 1−2 and Thailand by 1−5 which cost the AFC Championships for the first time in 2007 edition.

India thrashed host Bhutan and Maldives by 4−0[11] and 8−0[12] respectively in the group matches, reaching to the semi-finals they lost to Nepal through penalty shoot-out by 1−3 as the full-time ended in a 1−1 tie,[13] thus their dream of first SAFF u18 champion ended here but they won the third place in the tournament by defeating Bhutan again by a solitary goal.

In the next edition, which was also the last time they played this tournament, India suffered massive defeats as they finished bottom of their group of four teams with -31 as goal difference.