At the instance of Cabinet, the Ministry has framed a draft Comprehensive Sports Policy, which has been posted on its website since 26 July 2007.  Consultations are being held with stakeholders and, after the draft is revised in the light of the consultations, a final draft will be submitted to Cabinet. 

In recognition of the fact that the overwhelming majority of our children, adolescents and young people have no access to organized sports and games, the revised Twenty Point Programme adopted on Gandhi Jayanti 2006 has set the national goal of “Sports for All”.  The draft makes provision to fill this gaping lacuna in a time-bound manner.  Various lacunae identified in the pursuit of the second overarching goal of “Excellence in Sports” have been identified and measures proposed toward building on “Sports for All” to achieve “Excellence in Sports”.  Contingent Constitutional, Legal and Institutional measures have been identified and steps in this regard suggested.

The draft indicates that approximately 72 crore out of an estimated 77 crore of our population below the age of 35 has little or no access to organized sports and games, thus indicating the extent to which previous sports policies have not succeeded in promoting “Sports for All”.  Secondly, as regards “Excellence in Sports”, the draft indicates how far behind most other countries is our performance in Olympic and other sports disciplines, indicating the requirement for a reappraisal of previous policies which have left us so far behind in the pursuit of “Excellence in Sports”.  Thirdly, the process of rectifying identified lacuna has indicated the Constitutional, Legal and Institutional measures that appear to be required.  The draft thus builds upon the three pillars of:

         “Sports for All”;

-                      “Excellence in Sports”; and

-                      “Constitutional, Legal and Institutional measures”

This information was given by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister of Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs & Sports and DoNER in the Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question by Shri Amitava Nandy and Shri Naveen Jindal.

AVC/Hb