Sport builds national character
I often wonder what brought me here. Little did I realise that those baby steps in cricket would lead to lifetime memories. I always loved playing sport and cricket was my life. My father, Prof. Ramesh Tendulkar was a poet and writer. He always supported me and encouraged me to be what I wanted to be in life. The greatest gift I got from him was the freedom to play, the right to play. And I would always be grateful to him for that.
There are many pressing matters in our country that require our attention: Economic growth, poverty, food security, health care among many others. Being a sportsman, I am going to talk about health, sport and fitness of India for it has a telling impact on our economy. My vision is a healthy and fit India: Jab swastha yuva tab desh mein kucch hua. India is said to emerge as the youngest average age nation in the world by 2020. So, the assumption is younghain to fit hain. But we are wrong. We are the diabetic capital of the world with 75 million people being affected by this disease. And when it comes to obesity, we are sitting at no. 3 spot in the world. The economic burden of these diseases will not allow our nation to progress. According to a UN report, the impact on the Indian economy of non-communicable disease from 2012 to 2030 will be $6.3 trillion yaneIndian four crore crore rupaye. You heard it right. This can change if we exercise, play a sport or be active.
But for this, I feel, we need a plan to help us become a sporting nation to change our sedentary lifestyle and mindset. Our activity sessions — fitness session — are becoming lighter. Our eating sessions are becoming heavier. We need to change this habit. I feel that in this era of mobile phones, we are all tending to become immobile.
Many of us only discuss but we don’t play at all. We need to transform India from a sport-loving nation to a sport-playing nation. The northeast, which has only four per cent population in India, has a vibrant sporting culture. It has produced many sporting heroes including our boxing icon Mary Kom, recently-crowned champion weightlifter Mirabai Chanu, Dipa Karmakar, Bhaichung Bhutia, Sarita Devi, Sanjita Chanu and many many more.
Sport promotes social harmony. President Nelson Mandela's efforts to use the Rugby World Cup in South Africa's journey to become an inclusive state are legendary.
Sports taught me to get back up. I had a goal and I started planning for it. But the most important aspect was the execution of those plans. Not always did I succeed. There were occasions where I failed but sports taught me to get back to my feet and compete in the fairest possible manner. We must build a sporting culture in our country. Otherwise a young, unfit, unhealthy India is a recipe for disaster.
The three important I's. I am humbly proposing the framework of three 'I’s in the country — Invest, Insure, Immortalise.
We must invest our own time and effort and ensure our wellness. Each one of us needs to start adopting an active sport and play it regularly. We have our honourable chairperson who loves his game of badminton much like the famous poet and lyricist Gulzar saheb's love for tennis. Age is no bar as we are a country where one of the oldest marathon runners is the 101-year-old Parmeswaran E P from Kochi whom I met recently.
Our citizens and schoolchildren should have access to more sports infrastructure, open spaces, and playgrounds should be retained. Along with smart cities, we should look at building sport smart cities. In this context, I appeal to the honourable Minister for Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley ji to kindly consider a percentage of CSR spend be made compulsory for the development of sports infrastructure.
At a policy level, sports should be at par with any other subjects in schools. Children representing school, district, state or country should get added marks or grades.
This has been an area I have been pursuing since the beginning of my tenure. I am grateful that it is indeed under serious consideration with the HRD and the sports ministry working on the same.
Daughters of India are capable of being champions 'Jab ghar mei beti paidha hoti hai tab hum kehete hai Lakshmi ghar aayi hain, uss Lakshmi ko Lakshmi ki tarah rakhna humare haath mei hain.' (When a daughter is born in our family, we say that Goddess Lakshmi has come home. To keep Lakshmi like she deserves is in our hands). Daughters of India have shown what they are capable of with champions like P V Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza, Mithali Raj and the list goes on and on.
When dreams don't discriminate then, why do we? I want to appreciate their parents, their family members, their coaches, their friends for helping them, for encouraging them and that is the only reason they have reached here. My message to parents is to give equal support and encouragement to their daughters and sons and they will make them proud.
Before the Olympics or major sporting event, our expectations go skyrocketing. We realise things are changing for good and that they have adopted long term approach on preparation.
Along with earlier identification of talent, we must also have a dedicated squad guiding our athletes' preparations and I feel it is extremely important to have a full time support staff around our athletes and winning medals should be their target as well.
Persistence, preparation, and practice will help us achieve our targets. I know there is no glory in practice but without it there is no glory either. I am sure financial security is often a challenge when any sport person decides to focus on sports alone as a career. I am sure our colleague and former India Hockey captain Dilip Tirkey will agree in most cases the sporting career ends at the early age 35-40 years. Ironically, it is an age where a professional's career usually takes off or is rather stable. I am also aware that the government through its many institutions employs sportspersons and supports them, which we all appreciate but we have many national, state, district level retired athletes who don't have a proper job. Some of them are probably passing files from one table to another.
While ensuring their financial stability, we must also keep their minds engaged. Their skills and passion for sports will be best utilised for coaching our future generation. A case in point is the life of Naori Mundu who was a national level hockey player from Jharkhand. Following the end of her playing career she doubles up as a teacher and works in the farm to make ends meet. Sita Sahu, a medallist in special Olympics in Athens in 2011, is selling golgappasto manage her life. We need to create an organisation and engage these athletes to train our school children and identify talent at an early age.