Arunachal Pradesh as a state is making rapid progress in many fields. On the other hand, there seems to be an urgency to catch up with lost time, rightly. However, one sector the state is lagging behind is sports. It is not that the state lacks talent. The robust young men and women of the state are any sportspersons’ envy. Yet, much remains to be done to pool their talents. Though the Pema Khandu government had come out with a sports policy in early part of this year, it lacked clarity. The vision was to make Arunachal Pradesh a vibrant and leading state in the sports arena as well as to fulfill the basic infrastructure needs for development of sports by 2030. It has been framed to address almost all the issues concerning the development of sports in the state. The policy puts emphasis on the importance of sports in all educational institutions and seeks to make sports and physical education an integral part of the school curricula up to the higher secondary level. 

That is welcome, of course. But the majority of schools in the state lack a good play ground and there is also shortage of physical training instructors (PT teacher). Moreover, the priorities are also seem to be misplaced since the government offers sportsmen and women participating in Olympics an incentive of Rs. 40 lakhs while a gold medal in the same fetches Rs. 3 crore. The Government instead should have concentrated at the national level events to begin with. Firstly, to bring out the sporting talents and to groom them; they have to be spotted and groomed at the local school level. For this, holding of annual sports meet at school, district and state level is imperative. 

The buzzword should be “catch them young.” Moreover, coaches play an important role in shaping a real sportsperson. However, there is hardly any policy to compensate the coaches for the hard efforts they put up. The state can produce good sportspersons as it envisions by 2030 provided it changes its priorities. It may also be noted that the construction of modern stadium at Yupia in Papum Pare district with a 15,000 capacity has been lingering since 2015. In all probability, it will take another year to complete while the one at Pasighat is in limbo. State Sports Minister Dr. Mohesh Chai need to roll up his sleeves and act now.