Promoting and Broad-basing Sports in India

According to an estimate of the Planning Commission of India, the country will be the home of approximately 510 million people in the age group of 15- 35 years by the end of 2016. In other words, India will emerge as the country with largest youth population. This is indeed an opportunity for the country to broad-base sports and to improve its performance at the international level by engaging the youth in sporting activities. Since 1982, various initiatives had been taken to promote and develop sports in India. Despite these efforts, India has achieved limited success at the international sporting arena. It signifies the importance of a comprehensive policy to inculcate sports culture in the country to achieve excellence in sports.

There are various aspects of introducing sports culture at the grass-root level. Perhaps, the two major aspects are creating sporting infrastructure and encouraging mass participation in sports. In this context, it is relevant to mention that the Physical Health Law of the People’s Republic of China was adopted in 1995 to encourage the people of China to engage in sports. The programme had been designed to achieve three major objectives:

i) To encourage the people of China to engage in at least one sporting activity each day

ii) To find two ways of keeping fit

iii) To conduct health examination every year

Initiatives had been taken to provide adequate infrastructure to support the programme. There are almost 620000 gymnasiums and stadiums in China, most of which are open for the use of the public. Outdoor fitness centres have been installed in urban communities. All communities are equipped with fitness facilities of national standard. This project is playing an instrumental role in broad-basing sports in China.

In India, the Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) had been introduced to engage the youth of rural India in sporting activities. The objectives of the scheme are to provide sports infrastructure/ equipments at the Panchyat level and to encourage youth in rural areas to participate in sports by organizing competition from block level to national level. Rs. 1,500 crore had been approved by the Planning Commission for the eleventh Five Year Plan and a budgetary allocation of Rs. 92 crore was provided in the scheme for 2008-09 while Rs. 160 crore had been allocated for 2009-10. Similar initiatives should be taken to promote sports in the urban areas as well.

A major constraint in promoting sports in India is the reluctance of the youth of the country to accept sports as a career option. Lack of integration between sports and education acts as an impediment to provide a comprehensive career direction to the potential sports persons of the country. It signifies the importance of designing a specialized training programme for the overall development of the sporting talents. The training programme should focus on three important areas which are explained below:

Educational Development

Efforts should be made to tie- up with Schools, Colleges and Universities to provide education to the sportspersons through specialized courses designed only for them. These courses will support the sportspersons in building a career after their retirement from professional sports.

Personal Development

Specialized training should be provided on communication, public speaking, media interaction, etiquette etc for the personal development of the sportspersons.

Employment Generation

This area should focus on exploring the possibilities of future employment for the sportspersons.

This programme, if implemented, may play a pivotal role in inspiring the youth of the country to take up sports as a career option.

There is no dearth of passion for sports in India. The only requirement is to convert the passion into profession by providing adequate infrastructure and a career direction. We may expect that the major stakeholders of sports in India will play an active role in achieving these objectives.

Ankan Banerjee

Member of Faculty

Naval Tata Centre of Excellence in Sports Management of

Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Kolkata