Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), formerly known as the Khelo India School Games (KISG) are the national level multidisciplinary grassroot games held in India. The name “Khelo India” literally translates into “Play India”, and the multisport event is named as such to promote the spirit and importance of sports and athletics at a young age. The games are held in two categories: under-17 years (for school students) and under-21 years (for college students), and cover over 18 different disciplines in two categories.
The Games also feature a Training of Trainers programme to facilitate the preparation of the trainers who will be tutoring the future stars. From the Games, every year around 1000 youth will be awarded a scholarship of ₹500,000 for eight years in order to prepare them for international sporting events.
The Khelo India Youth Games 2022 will be held from the 4th of June to the 13th of the same month and will be hosted by the Haryana state.
History
The KIYG is an initiative by the government and was introduced in 2018. The first edition of the Games was inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 31st January 2018 at the Indira Gandhi Arena in New Delhi. Haryana emerged as the top team in inaugural edition, which is otherwise considered as a sports powerhouse despite the small size of the state. The team managed a total of 102 medals with 38 gold medals. They were followed closely by Maharashtra (111 medals with 36 gold) and Delhi (94 medals with 25 gold).
In the last edition of the event in 2020, Maharashtra finished on top of the medal tally ( 256 medals with 78 gold) followed by Haryana ( 200 medals with 68 Gold).
Motto
The Khelo India Youth Games have the motto of “Kheloge Kudoge Banoge Lajawaab”, which encourages more kids to play everyday and increase the interest and participation of the youth in sports.
The mascots for KIYG are ‘Vijay the Tiger’ and ‘Jaya the Black Buck. The Royal Bengal Tiger is well known as the national animal of India and the Black Buck is a protected species of antelopes found in India.
Venue
The Games will be primarily held in Haryana. Guwahati, Assam hosted the last edition of the event.
Athletic, Badminton, Archery, Boxing, Cycling, Tennis, Judo, Gymnastics, Table Tennis, Shooting, Swimming, basketball, hockey, kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Wrestling, Football and Cycling.
