Former athlete Ashwini to head SAI panel

In the wake of the shocking suicide attempt by four young athletes at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Alapuzzha, Kerala, the Sports Ministry has constituted a committee of experts to probe the current status of SAI centres across India.

The incident, which occurred in early May, in which a girl athlete lost her life after consuming a poisonous fruit, brought widespread attention to the present state of affairs at the SAI centres and underlined the need for an improvement in the system to ensure well-being of inmates in these facilities.

Former athlete Ashwini Nachappa has been appointed the chairperson of the committee which includes, Gopi Chand, UGC secretary Jaspal Sandhu, Malav Shroff, Bhogeshwar Barua, Baldev Singh and Former Member of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Neena P Nayak.

The committee has been given a three-month timeline to come up with suggestions. It has been asked to visit at least one or two centres in each region (North, South, East, West) to study the issues involved and give recommendations on issues of athletes at the training centres, availability of their food and dietary supplements, cleanliness, grievance redressal, anti-sexual harassment measures, overall systems, procedures, checks and balances, system of reporting and monitoring, among others for the holistic development of athletes, said the statement.

The Ministry has also said that it would be open to receive any recommendation, other than the stated mandate, from the committee during its study.

“SAI Centres are spread all over the country and have different issues in view of different cultures, climatic conditions, sports disciplines, backgrounds of athletes and locations, etc. The Committee may take into account such differences while making its recommendations,” added the statement.