Indian traditions in sports have been truly unique and civilisational. Wrestling or malla yuddha, for example, started as a way for men to stay fit. Jallikattu or bull-embracing is a traditional lap to protect and preserve indigenous bulls. Chaturanga or chess is famed to have taught ancient Indians the art of strategising for a war. Snakes and Ladders or Moksha Patam carried lessons in morality, representing a life journey vacillating between the consequences of vice and virtue. Needless to say, these traditions show a deep kinship between sports and the Indian way of life.
Yet the modern-day landscape of sports in India had become a game of snakes and ladders, quite literally—a chance-based phenomenon where ladders took you up and snakes, down. However, there were only a few ladders while snakes were abounding—lack of infrastructure, chronic underfunding, bureaucratic regulation, and corruption, to name a few. The situation was so bad that there have been multiple instances where athletes had to fund themselves to represent India on international platforms.
It may be hard to relay and reimagine the dismal picture of Indian sports, especially now, as you and me have partaken in the moment where Neeraj Chopra threw the world off-guard by clinching a historic gold at Tokyo Olympics 2020; where we witnessed magic at Tokyo Paralympics 2020 by winning more medals than all the previous medals combined; where India set new benchmarks with a record haul of 107 medals at the recently concluded Asian Games 2023, and unprecedented 111 medals at the Asian Para Games, 2023. The list goes on.
A case study in itself, this momentous change started taking shape in the early years of Narendra Modi’s first term as Prime Minister. Besides paucity of money and material, lack of a positive vision has also played its part in further derailing our sporting glory. PM Modi began changing the face of Indian sports with just that—a change in perspective and creating a vision for India as a sporting society. As PV Sindhu puts it in Modi@20, “Present to him a challenge which must be met, and he never compromises with a suboptimal result but goes for the top prize with the attitude, ‘Hoga kaise nahin?’.”
With an ‘athlete-centric’ approach, PM Modi’s government focussed on the mantra—potential plus platform is equal to performance. And it was channelised through prime initiatives like Target Olympic Podium Scheme, Khelo India, and the Fit India Movement, among others. Apart from filling critical gaps in sports infrastructure, these initiatives have taken sports to the remotest corners of the country, repositioned sports as a viable career option for youths while also gratifying the spirit of sportsmanship through inclusivity and diversity.
Khelo India was launched by the Modi government in 2016 with twin objectives of increasing mass participation and promotion of excellence in sports. Till May 2023, Rs. 3000 crore have been spent on infrastructure development under Khelo India, helping over 28,000 athletes across India.
Apart from the grassroots, special focus is laid on the needs of differently-abled athletes and the demands of traditional games and indigenous martial arts, such as Mallakhamba, Kalaripayattu, Gatka, and Thang-Ta, among others.
Women have also been able to conquer societal mindsets and leave significant footprints for generations to come, creating change that is wide-ranging and progressive. Women leagues are conducted under ‘Inclusiveness through Sports’, seeing participation of nearly 23,000 women athletes across age groups. The intent of this government is clear when we see PT Usha getting appointed as the chief of the Indian Olympic Association; when Deepa Malik, India’s first woman paralympic medalist, became the ‘Ni-Kshay Mitra’ ambassador. This is to say that sensitivity, diversity and inclusivity have been institutionalised in the truest sense possible.
This idea to infuse sports culture has its veins located across the length and breadth of the country in the form of sports schools at the grassroot level and regional and national centers of excellence—all of these to impart specialised training with cutting-edge infrastructure and promote excellence. Sports Authority of India has established 23 National Centres of Excellence across India to that end. Till August 2023, 7,780 athletes have been supported. Moreover, the government has put in special efforts to make the entire process of selection and training scientific and strictly professional.
Sports universities like Major Dhyan Chand Sports University in Meerut and National Sports University in Manipur up the ante by supporting thousands of sportspersons with the right kind of training and motivation.
The exemplary Target Olympic Podium Scheme aims to find and prepare athletes for Olympic and Paralympic Games. The scheme does so through a direct financial assistance of Rs. 50,000 per month to select athletes along with specialised instruction and care from renowned coaches, physiotherapists, and psychologists at state-of-the-art sports facilities. Mission Olympic Cell has also been put in place to further assist athletes selected under TOPS. In a similar vein, Junior TOPS has been instituted to cater to junior athletes especially those of the age of 12, 13 or 14, aiming to prepare them to be Olympics champions by 2028.
The right intent has been generously backed by spending that has tripled since 2013-14. From a measly spending of just over Rs. 466 crore in 2004-05, the Modi government has steadily hiked the allocation to sports year after year, to the tune of nearly Rs 3,400 crore in 2023-24.
While the government has done laurels in creating a conducive ecosystem for sports to grow and glow, the personal touch given by the Prime Minister in motivating individual athletes claims special mention.
We all remember how the PM’s words of wisdom and warmth came handy after the Indian women’s hockey team’s heartbreaking loss at the Tokyo Olympics. “Stop crying, I can hear you cry. The country is proud of you, don't be disheartened. Your sweat has become an inspiration for crores of women in the country. After so many decades, hockey, which is India's identity, is again getting prominence due to your hard work,” PM Modi told the team.
Also, while addressing athletes who participated in Asian Para Games 2023, PM Modi said, “All of you present here, some have come back winners, some wiser but none has come back defeated.”
PM Modi brings character into the entire process, ensuring that growth in sports happens holistically and parallelly as a life process. The special task he gave to sportspersons at a breakfast meeting at his residence stands true to this assertion—he took a promise from all Olympians that they would visit at least 75 primary schools and colleges by Independence Day 2023 and spread awareness on malnutrition while also encouraging school children to play a sport. This speaks volumes about how PM Modi makes the Indian growth story his personal goal.
The reforms in the last nine years, including those in the administrative machinery and the quintessential way of working coupled with infrastructural and financial support have turned the Indian sporting landscape around and how! Yet the qualifier in this spectacular journey is the leader who leads by example; who has the fire in his belly for change, for growth, for seeing India where it belongs.
Under PM Modi’s leadership, India is not only improving its medal tally in sporting events, the country is also looking at hosting major global events such as the Youth Olympics in 2030 and the Summer Olympics in 2036.
