An integrated approach is required for development of Youth and Sports in India. This was stated by the Minister of Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs & Sports and DoNER, Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar while addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting attached to his Ministries on Wednesday evening. Shri Aiyar said that the National development is linked to the development of the youth in the country and this in turn is linked to better sports facilities.
Out of 77 crore youth in India only 5 crore have access to sports facilities which puts a constraint on development of excellence in sports. Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar said that the sports policy 2002 put the responsibility of development of sports in the rural areas on the state, while the Union Ministry was to take care of the bigger sporting events. However, the Ministry has now got directions to draft a new sports policy which can encourage better integration and development of youth and sports. He said that the draft policy has been prepared and it will be published on the Ministry’s website to invite comments so that the final policy can be arrived at. Shri Aiyar said that it is very important that the schools and Pathshalas have proper sports facilities to generate an interest of students in sports. He said that as of now only 43 per cent of Pathshalas have facilities for sports and in order to increase their number it is important that Panchayati Raj Sansthans should be actively involved in this exercise. The Minister said that there are about 2.5 lakh panchayats and about the same number of Nehru Yuvak Kendras and if the efforts of both are coordinated in the area of sports development, it can yield very good results.
With a view to promoting community sports infrastructure at the grassroots level, the Union Government proposes to undertake the Panchayat Yuva Kendra aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) in rural areas, which would cover all the village and block Panchayats in the country numbering around 250,000 over the Eleventh and Twelfth Five Year Plan periods. A similar programme is also envisaged for urban areas, the Nagar Palika Yuva Kendra aur Khel Abhiyan, which can be dovetailed with the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission. There would be organized competition structure from the Panchayat level up to the national level. 700 million youth including adolescent have little or marginal access to sporting faculties. Of these, about 500 million rural youth including adolescent who are relatively even more deprived than their urban counterparts. Universalisation of sports cannot be achieved without adequate thrust on development of sports in rural areas.
The Minister said that in the next ten years it is targetted that every panchayat should have sports facilities and this needs to be given national importance in order to come up with aspired results. Shri Aiyar said that new sports policy would be focusing on the following areas. As envisaged in the revised 20-point programme of 2006 the policy will focus on sports for all. The girls will be given sports facilities which either provide them exclusive facilities or exclusive time for practicising sports. Some special facilities are also being worked out for handicapped youth. He said that it is important that wide based sports facilities are provided so that there is a general health consciousness because this alone can lead to increased sports achievements. Shri Aiyar also said that a Sports Regulatory Authority is required which can decide on disputes between sports federations and other bodies through a democratic and transparent system. He emphasized the need for having special facilities in the Northeast region, which does not have the same sports facilities as other states. Shri Aiyar said that despite lack of facilities Northeast has given us some outstanding sports persons. Shri Aiyar said that in order to achieve better sports development the Constitution may need to be amended for bringing sports from the State list to Concurrent list.
The members appreciated the Ministry’s initiatives and the integrated approach to development of youth & sports. They supported the idea of bringing sports from State list to Concurrent list, and welcomed the proposal for a Sports Regulatory Authority. The members felt that better facilities and compensations were required for sports persons in the country.
The members of Parliament S/Shri Bhartruhari Mehtab, D. Venugopal, Ganesh Singh, Darog Prasad Saroj, Rajniti Prasad, Prof. Alka Balram Kshatriya, Somabhai G. Koli Patel, Kiren Rijiju, Rampal Singh, Atma Singh Gill and Praveen Rashtrapal as well as the Secretary, Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri S.K. Arora and senior officials of the Ministry participated in the meeting.
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(Release ID :29265)