CSR: Why India Is Lagging Behind In Sports
India has the second largest population in the world. It is also one of the fastest growing economies. Yet, it lags miles behind in terms of sports. India is one of the worst performing countries in Olympics. It is unsettling to know that India possesses merely 1 per cent of the net tally of the Olympic medals. The reasons for this state of affairs are as listed below.
Lack of Sports Culture
Sports is often viewed as an extra curricular activity by majority of adults in India. The children are discouraged to pursue sports and pushed towards academics from an early age. Youth who have the talent often use sports to secure admissions at universities or better jobs instead of pursuing it as passion.
Lack of Infrastructure
Since it is not given the deserved respect and importance, the infrastructure for practicing a sport lacks in majority of schools in India. Not just in schools but the public sports grounds too are not very well maintained in many towns and villages.
Lack of rewards
The youth do not choose to pursue a sport professionally because the rewards or even payment for them is measly or none. This condition is existing for almost all the games in India except for Cricket.
Lack of Broadcasters
“I was traveling in a flight few years ago alone. I was seated next to this really tall guy who looked very athletic. On talking to him, I got to know that he was Indian National Basketball team player, Yadvinder Singh. He was flying back home after a glorious win. I was delighted to know this, but was also sad that I couldn’t recognise him on my own,” said Pooja, a sports fanatic from Mumbai.
This is true for all sportspersons in India apart from the cricketers. Because sports do not get a lot of coverage on TV in India, except cricket. This makes the players unrecognised and unpopular. It also causes the youth to not develop interest in sports.
There is a lot of gap in the sports sector. A lot needs to be done in the field from changing the mindset to developing infrastructure in the country for it to come forward in sports. It is only when all the stakeholders including government, corporates and individuals come together, can we develop the sector, and raise more athletes in the country.
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Regards,
The CSR Journal Team
