A survey establishes that our country has more or less poor sports literacy. This is also a pointer as to why we are lagging behind in medal tally despite having such a vast population in our country.

Sports Literacy Mission was launched at the Indian Habitat Centre in Delhi in the presence of 25 Arjuna Awardees, Olympians and Dronacharya Awardees on Tuesday by an NGO, ‘Sports: A Way of Life’ founded by a Lucknow lad, Kanishka Pandey, 25.

Speaking on the occasion, Pandey said his NGO had recently conducted a nationwide survey to gauge the public mood vis-a-vis participation in various sports activities. The survey proved to be an eye-opener. According to the findings, less than 5% people have interest in sports whereas less than 2% females were interested in sports.

“This survey establishes that our country has more or less poor sports literacy. This is also a pointer as to why we are lagging behind in medal tally despite having such a vast population in our country,” said Pandey.

He further said that his NGO’s main objective is to promote the ‘gurukul tradition’ of education wherein education and sports moved hand in hand. His organisation emphasises on developing primary schools as nursery for sports from early stage of children’s life. “We want to create an environment for growth of sports from the very beginning,” he added.

Kanishka Pandey urged retired players to encourage children who have been deprived of playing any game and provide them training.

He further said sports have several values that help in grooming individuals.

“So far no one has made any effort to draw the attention of people towards benefits of sports and no one has used sports values to encourage people in participating games,” he added.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / Rajeev Mullick, Hindustan Times, Lucknow / August 26th, 2017