*Mega sports calendar to engage over 40 lakh youth across J&K
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 16: The Department of Youth Services & Sports (DYSS) today presented a comprehensive and ambitious roadmap for youth engagement before Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo, outlining a year-long calendar of sports, fitness, cultural and youth-centric activities aimed at fostering holistic development, social participation and sporting excellence across the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The high-level meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, Culture, Brij Mohan Sharma; Commissioner Secretary, Youth Services & Sports, YashaMudgal; Director General, YS&S; Secretary, J&K Sports Council; representatives of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India; School Education and Higher Education Departments, besides other concerned officers.
Emphasizing effective execution, the Chief Secretary directed the Department to ensure time-bound and outcome-oriented implementation of the activity calendars framed by the Directorate of Youth Services & Sports and the J&K Sports Council.
The Chief Secretary further advised the Department to optimally leverage funds available under SASCI, Ministry of Sports schemes and Capex allocations to upgrade sports infrastructure to modern standards. He emphasized that both infrastructure and events must meet high-quality benchmarks to nurture elite sportspersons.
Highlighting digital empowerment, the Chief Secretary underscored the need for an online benchmarking and athlete-tracking platform. He directed the Department to scale registrations on the My BHARAT portal from the current 5.5 lakh to at least 20 lakh, while ensuring continuous creation of events on both the My BHARAT and Fit India portals. He emphasized automated alerts to registered youth for wider participation.
Commissioner Secretary, Youth Services & Sports, Yasha Mudgal highlighted the Department’s proactive engagement with national and international sports bodies to host major events in J&K, supported by ongoing and proposed infrastructure upgrades. She also emphasized the need for additional trainers, coaches and allied human resources to strengthen service delivery across districts.
Director General, Youth Services & Sports, Anuradha Gupta detailed the Directorate’s institutionalized five-tier tournament framework, beginning with intramural school-level competitions and culminating in national and international representation.
DYSS informed that J&K athletes have achieved notable success nationally and internationally.
A key pillar of the roadmap is the creation of a comprehensive digital athlete ecosystem, targeting over 20 lakh player registrations. The proposed system will feature unique Sports IDs, performance dashboards, DigiLocker-linked certificates, Aadhaar-based authentication and real-time tracking of athlete progression from grassroots to elite levels.
Secretary, J&K Sports Council, Nuzhat Gul presented a result-oriented roadmap, revealing that against a target of 37.50 lakh youth engagement for 2025-26, the Sports Council has already engaged 29.75 lakh youth till December 2025.
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