India’s performance in sports at the international platform is dismal. The sporting ecosystem operates in silos which favour particular sports, regions and athletic elitism. Indian sports is marred with fundamental issues such as lack of mass participation, insufficient public infrastructure for sports and a lack of sporting culture at the grassroots. This is not to say that there is a lack of talent, rather the country lacks a structured sports policy framework.
There is much to be done to achieve the true potential of sports in India. Scholars worldwide have emphasised meso-level frameworks like Policy Networks, Multiple Streams, and Advocacy Coalition Frameworks to channelise material and social infrastructure around sports. India is replete with examples such as that of Pullela Gopichand’s efforts to make Hyderabad the ‘Badminton Capital’ or the ‘Haryana Model’ which caters to athletics. There is a need to expand these practices beyond specific regions or locales across the length and breadth of India. In this milieu, India can adopt meso-level approaches with region-specific circumstances that integrate player-playground-policy to substantiate a framework for sports.
At first, player-centric reforms should ascribe sports as ‘rites of passage’ for the Indian youth to counter the growing epidemic of obesity among children and other non-communicable diseases like diabetes. To make this possible, region-specific traditional sports needs to be promoted to ensure mass participation and cultivate interest among people. The country needs regional centres of excellence by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) beyond the dominant sporting regions. Localised sports mega events such as the Rural Olympics on the lines of the Rajasthan government should be promoted countrywide to make traditional as well as modern sports accessible.
Second, there is a need to standardise playgrounds within schools to optimise resource utilisation and facilitate athletic upbringing at an early age. MGNREGA funds should be utilised in building sports infrastructure in rural areas. The ‘One Panchayat One Playground’ initiative by the Kerala Government is a parameter that can be advocated across states to promote sporting culture at the grassroots. Moreover, the scope of Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) for sporting infrastructure should be extended in Tier-2 cities of India to create purposeful urban topographies that cater to sports.
Third, at the policy level, sports scholars in India have repeatedly vouched for the inclusion of sports in the concurrent list. Such meso-level intervention would ensure sports policy spillovers towards health, education, and gender parity. At the same time, sports can be given a separate entry in the Panchayat and Municipality list and a ‘Right to Sports’ should be espoused in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution for better implementation of macro-policies around sports. Alongside, an increased budgetary allocation with a ‘sports manifesto’ would cater to the increasing demand for sports in the country. In addition, grounded sports multi-disciplinary research at the regional level needs to be promoted to assimilate global capital and local sporting practices.
Overall, sports needs to be made a well-oiled machinery to leverage the diversity of sports in the country beyond the traditional domains of sports, utilise demographic dividend, ensure mass participation, explore tourism potential, integrate player-playground-policy, and used as a vaccine against non-communicable diseases.
