Friday 7 February 2014

Is the government in for sports?

 "There is always room for improvement." It is very easy to blame the government for all the work they do.
"Before you criticize someone,walk a mile in their shoes."
Sports is one of the concerns of the government out of many issues that it looks after.We must understand that the government is doing its best for the development in the field of sports.
It is estimated that the Indian government spends about US$ 500 million every year for sports itself.
Miracles cannot happen overnight. This situation will sure change, but it does need time.
              BUT ON THE OTHER HAND
How many times have we heard parents brag about their teen acing a test? And how many times have we heard these parents brag about their teen placing first in a race? Why is it that despite being equally exhausting (albeit physically) and requiring incomparable dedication, sports is regarded as a waste of time? Why is sports always an 'extra' curricular activity, and not something worth full-focus training? Why is it that when a child shows a penchant for mathematics, his future is considered 'set', but when he shows talent for a sport, there is apprehension as to where his life will head?
Every time, EVERY SINGLE TIME we ask these questions, we get a standard answer: "Beta, this is India." (Son,this is India)
Now we could bang our heads over this statement like we do every time, or we could look at the source of this school of thought.

Obviously, our parents want the best for us, so they wouldn't insist upon excelling in academics unless it had some material benefit down the line. And, this is amply validated by the seven-digit salary packages of engineers and doctors. Also, it's pretty easy to take the job security bait: the odds of getting (and keeping) a job as an engineer are greater than those of becoming a successful sports person. Moreover, training for technical fields is far more abundant than sports training.
The question arises - why such a sorry state of affairs?

It's like the chicken-or-egg situation...did poor sports facilities arise due to the meagre demand for them, or did the majority's disinterest in professional sports rise out of underdeveloped sports facilities? Either way, rectification needs to begin somewhere.
Changing mindsets is a monstrous task, involving too many soft issues and subtleties. A more straightforward outlook would be to make changes showing quick results:
a. Allotment of funds specifically for sports (let's face it...there's no free lunch)
b. Fulfilment of the benefits promised to families of sports persons
c. Setting up of recruitment programmes for trainers as well as young talent.
d. Creation of a wider arena of opportunities for sports persons by increasing, for instance, the number of tournaments we take part in.
These are four out of a probable 100 solutions that a dedicated brainstorm group could come up with. Their cumulative effect, though, would result in a change at the household level:
a. More support towards pursuing sports.
b. Less pressure on adolescents to pursue a subject they don't want to.
c. Working towards  athletic skill enhancement without any time being wasted in forcing the child into doing what he isn't cut out for.
What an ideal situation, no? A little faith, a little effort, a little distancing of politics from a noble cause, a little shift of focus from personal benefit to community benefit, is probably all it'll take for change to happen.
A repeated concept maybe, but worth thinking over.

So probably the government is not the only one to blame for the discouragement of sports.

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