Eastern Sentinel

The solitary battles players wage

1st Aug 2022 10:08:PM Editorials

Listening to the mother of Achinta Sheuli, who bagged the men's 73kg weightlifting gold at the ongoing 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, say that she couldn't provide her son with meat- something which is a must in a weightlifter's diet, tells us the solitary battles India's sportspersons wage. 20-year-old Achinta has made it big but there are thousands of sportspersons who are waging such battles with the hope of making the country proud.

Sportspersons have always had it tough in our society which views sports as an unproductive pastime. Sportspersons in our country not only have to fight their opponents but also have to fight their reluctant families, a corrupt system, politics and poor sports infrastructure. With so much going against them, is it any wonder that a nation of one billion has only a handful of medalists.

Arunachal Pradesh over the recent years has seen steady growth in its list of medal-winning sportspersons. However, despite the raw talent available, the state hasn't been able to tap this potential.

Though the Pema Khandu government had come out with a sports policy, it lacks clarity. The vision is 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 playground and there is also shortage of physical training instructors (PT teacher). Moreover, the priorities 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 must concentrate 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 effort they put up.

The state can produce good sportspersons as it envisions by 2030 provided it changes its priorities.

Hunting out talent and giving needed support and assistance, sports infrastructure creation is key for producing medal winners.

Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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