PM Modi's push for sports at grassroots level
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: April 26, 2023 -

IT'S an ironical coincidence that on the same day the two-day 'Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session) of Youth Affairs and Sports Ministers of States/Union Territories' got underway at the City Convention Centre and addressers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union YAS minister Anurag Singh Thakur and junior sports minister Nisith Pramanik showered unrestrained praises on Manipur's sportspersons, police recovered heroin worth Rs 30 crore and rounded up 13 drug pushers while chief minister N Biren flagged off six mobile vans for Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC).

Inspite of the unanimous eulogisation by the three central leaders on the achievement of state's sportspersons, the latter three news items sum up the challenges for both the government and concerned stakeholders in preventing more youngsters from falling prey to drug and substance abuse.

There is no doubt that the government authorities and various other civil societies have been campaigning to contain further spread of addiction among the younger generation.

However, seizure of different kinds of psychotropic drugs at regular intervals underscore that the problem of substance abuse and drug peddling has been on the rise.

In fact, launch of the ICTC vans and introduction of similar initiative lined up in the coming days not only testify gravity of the drug abuse situation in the state but also entail relentless endeavours by all concerned.

While periodical seizure of drugs from different parts of the state and beyond signifies existence of a clandestine network, what should worry every sane person is that the North AOC area, from where the 13 drug pushers were picked up on Monday, remains hotbed for addicts.

Thus, the only remedy for coming out from such a seemingly inextricable situation is to engage the youngsters in active sports, not necessarily to bring laurels to the state and nation, but to keep them hale and hearty, and away from indulging in wasteful activities, substance abuse to be specific.

Taking into account of such a dire situation, the proposal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his virtual address, that central and state sports ministers should work together to provide quality infrastructure to every talented player in the country and formulate short and long-term goals to make India a leading sports nation assumes greater significance from the context of Manipur, where grooming centres and training facilities are accessible only to a select few.

With increasing number, of local playgrounds making way for community halls and government institutions, the children are left with no space to engage in physical recreational activities after school.

As construction of community halls and public utility structures is being counted as the developmental achievement, local MLAs also seem hesitant to invest their Local Area Development fund in developing sports infrastructure.

Moreover, the new trend of parents deriving satisfaction out of their kids' academic performance could be another reason for the gradual decline in the popularity of games and sports at the locality level.

As such, PM Modi's emphasis on conducting more competitions at the local level and improve sports infrastructure at the district and block level merits proactive support and implementation by the sports minister with cooperation of the local MLAs, without which it could be safely stated that achievements and accolades by/for Manipuri sportspersons would soon be for referential purpose only.