Sanjeev Kumar Gupta
National Sports Day is observed on 29 August every year to honour hockey wizard and legend, Major Dhyan Chand, who was born on this day in 1905 and who led India to three Olympic gold medalsin 1928, 1932, and 1936,scoring over 400 goals in a career spanning 23 years from 1926 to 1949.The first National Sports Day was celebrated on 29 Aug 2012. The designation of a specific day as National Sports Day by the Government of India is to lay emphasis on the development of sporting culture in the country, creating and sustaining sports infrastructure and providing support at the grassroots level in order to produce world-class sports persons. In addition to the various activities held across the country to celebrate the occasion, the national awards like the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award are also presented on this day.
The advantages accrued from sport and physical activity in our daily lives are enormous,especially for children, and on this National Sports Day, it would be worthwhile to relook at these important and perennial advantages.
* Promote physical health. Any physical activity promotes physical well-being, helps in ideal body growth, develops an aptitude for a healthier and active lifestyle, overcomes sedentary behaviour and prevents lifestyle-related health issues. The physical activity could range from running in open areas followed by organised exercises, brisk walking, yoga, playing conventional games like kho-kho, which do not require any special infrastructure or equipment or any other activity specifically suitable as per the local conditions.
* Promote mental health. The endorphin hormones released during physical activity lead to a positive mental attitude, help in stress reduction and promote overall emotional well-being. Nowadays, with the ever-growing menace of academic stress, indulging in a limited but concentrated regular physical activity can provide a highly beneficial escape from the monotonous academic routine. It is a proven fact that a happy break provided by physical activity can lead to a much better focus and thus a better academic performance.
* Promote social development. In the present day age of fierce academic competition, where excellence in individual performance is the sole goal for the children, sports provide a refreshing and conducive platform for promoting crucial social skills like teamwork, cooperation, communication and camaraderie. In the longer run, these qualities can foster better interpersonal relationships, result in enhanced social inclusion and empathy.
Promote a positive value system. Sports not only build character, but also reveal it. Any sporting activity has the potential to inculcate a feeling of sportsmanship, which shall reflect in humility in victory and grace in defeat. Sports instil the ethics of fair play and avoidance of unfair means to achieve the desired results. The need for continued perseverance, dedication and continuous growth so vital in sports, prepares the children to face the future challenges in life with serenity.
Promote positive channelisation of the raw youth energy. The youth, by virtue of their natural hormonal disposition, are storehouse of abundant energy which needs to be channelised in a positive manner. Sports is an ideal gateway for the positive outflow of this raw energy. It is far better that the young people are scoring goals in a football game or hitting sixes in a cricket match or sweating on a running track instead of driving recklessly on the roads and creating nuisance for others or resorting to drug abuse or indulging in other nefarious activities.
Promote a healthy lifestyle. The present lure of the younger generation towards junk food, smoking, and drinking is reflected in their performance as compared to other children in their age group, while involved in a physical sport activity. The participation of children in sports activities and their poor performance on the field can motivate children to reflect on their present lifestyle and concentrate on the need to modify it appropriately. This can also overcome the problems created by peer pressure to indulge in an unhealthy lifestyle.
The development of a sporting culture in the country can be easily achieved by introducing young children to various sports activities in their formative years of development. While the government may create sports infrastructure, launch schemes to promote different sports, and introduce incentives to ensure adequate participation, the successful development of a sporting culture shall require the collective will and unwavering support of the parents, school authorities and the local communities.
ROLE OF PARENTS
Padhoge Likhoge Banoge Nawab,
Kheloge Kudoge Banoge Kharab
This line easily summarises the dilemma of every parent as regards the future prospects of their children while they are in their formative years. This deep-rooted dilemma owes its existence to the lure of a stable job and economic safety. In India, sports are often viewed as a recreational activity and a pastime to be pursued till the age of 14 years and to be completely abandoned when the child reaches class tenth, when studies are prioritised over everything else. According to a recent survey, 70% of children in India stop playing sports by the age of 15, often to prioritise studies. This almost universal prioritisation of academics over sports is an acceptable societal norm since a career in sports lacks the assurance of a regular and continued financial stability, which other vocations offer. In India, presently, only cricket is capable of providing financial stability and recognition, but that too for a limited number of players. While other sports like badminton, tennis, football, kabaddi, athletics and chess are in the process of creating a niche for themselves, their journey has just commenced.
There has been a visible shift in the minds of Gen Z and Gen Alpha which is not averse to taking risks to follow their dreams and pursue their passions. This shift towards pursuing sports as a career is clearly attributable to the combination of factors like government support through dedicated programs, schemes and incentives, direct involvement of the corporates which are in the process of remodelling their image and public appeal through association with sports and emergence of professional sporting leagues for cricket, kabaddi and football, etc.
The parents must make efforts to move away from the deep-rooted belief that only academic excellence can assure a safe economic future. The dilemma of choosing between academics and sports needs to be replaced with a healthy balance where both can co-exist. The acceptance of this choice is difficult but worth it, to ensure that the next generation is happier in its choices.
ROLE OF SCHOOLS
The schools have a major and direct stake in the development of sporting culture. The countries like the USA, China and Japan, which lead in the medal tally at international events, have dedicated programmes for the identification of sporting talent at the school level itself. The students spend almost 7-8 hours in school, and there is sufficient scope to incorporate sports into the school curriculum along with the academics. The schools are quick in incorporating and investing in the emerging trends like Artificial Intelligence, Robotic labs in their academic curriculum to attract more students. Similarly, the schools must take pride in creating state-of-the-art sporting facilities too. It is quite easy for every private school to create infrastructure for badminton, volleyball, karate, table tennis, mallakhamb and skating, while the renowned schools with bigger campuses could explore the feasibility of football, hockey and tennis grounds and a swimming pool. The sports teacher in the schools must provide guidance and coaching to the students to further spur their interest in sports as per their inherent capabilities and displayed talent.
The schools do conduct regular sports events and competitions amongst their various houses. However, this caters only for the best available talent and thus limited students only participate in these competitions. During these times, the non-participating students are either mere spectators or are not engaged in any meaningful activity. The schools could overcome this situation by making more number of teams, which will ensure that every child is a part of a competing team, as per their individual capability and thus develops a feeling of competitiveness. This shall ensure an all-round and holistic development of every child.
The schools could have a flexible academicroutine to help the student-sportsperson manage their academic curriculum. They could also be marginally compensated through the award of additional academic credits based on their performance in their respective sporting disciplines. The model adopted by schools that have successfully incorporated sports in their academic curriculum should be implemented in other similar schools. The National Education Policy 2020 envisions the successful integration of sports in the academic curriculum,which makes the early implementation of NEP a greater necessity.
The schools could collaborate with the parents to ensure their presence on the school playground on more occasions to encourage their wards, unlike the present system of attending only the annual sports day.
ROLE OF COMMUNITY
The development of sporting culture in the country can be highly boosted by active community participation. The most visible manifestation of the involvement of the community is the IPL and WPL for cricket, ISL for football and Pro Kabaddi League, etc. The nomenclature of the teams itself results in the support of the entire community for their respective team, which creates a strong sense of shared identity, a powerful unifying force and a loyal fan base. Presently, this is applicable at the level of a state. The introduction of a similar model at the local community level can help in the development of sporting culture at a much larger scale.
The communities,through public-private collaboration, can create common sports facilities for the utilisation of the entire local population. This can then be followed up by organising local events that can be sponsored by local businessesand coordinated by the local community itself. This will help in the early identification of the talented sportsperson who could continue their further training in a more scientific and professional manner.
The involvement of the entire local population in the sporting activities, in addition to improving social bonding, will also be able to wean them away from sedentary lifestyles and increased screen time, which has led to the pandemic of obesity and lifestyle diseases. It has a huge potential to prevent drug abuse and other anti-social activities. This will also instil the much-needed thought process that sports and physical activities are of paramount importance for a holistic and well-rounded development.
This year too, the National Sports Day will be celebrated with great fervour and zeal throughout the country, and wide publicity shall be given to the events of the Day. But, it must be appreciated that there is more to the National Sports Day than an annual celebration. The development of a national sporting culture necessitates a continued and dedicated effort at all levels. This includes the creation of world-class sporting facilities and infrastructure, active participation at all levels, a fair selection process, professional management of the sports and promoting sports at the grassroots level. With India aiming to host the 2036 Olympics, the preparation must start on a war footing to ensure a credible performance by the host nation.
(The author is an Indian Air Force Veteran)
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