Proposed sports policy suggests 30-minute exercise per day for children in state

The Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC) has submitted a Sports Policy to the state government covering a wide gamut of aspects including sports for all and a long-term road map for the state to emerge as a major sports destination.

KKC had constituted a 18-member task force co-chaired by eminent sports personalities such as Prakash Padukone and Rahul Dravid to prepare the policy.

The policy, among others, focuses on promoting sports in schools, seeks to encourage decentralised competitions and hunt for talent, besides spelling out an action plan for motivating sports excellence, rewarding sports achievers and building sporting institutions and facilities. The policy had been prepared following a request from the government.

“Its a unique sports policy as all aspects of sports right from sports for citizen, children, sports infrastructure to outlining a road map for sports in Karnataka till 2030 have been envisaged”, KKC member secretary Mukund K Rao said.

Rao said the 57-page policy document was submitted to the government earlier this month and two rounds of discussions had been held with officials on the modalities of implementing its provisions.

Minister of State for Sports and Youth Services K Abhayachandra Jain said the policy would be placed before the Cabinet soon.“The Cabinet will discuss the recommendations and take a call. Once cleared, we will take up proposals with the finance department for the necessary grants”,  Jain said.

The KKC has calculated that the government will have to set aside Rs 660 crore for the next three years to implement all the suggestions made in the policy. However, Jain said such amount may not be made available in the wake of the prevailing drought in the state. However, some of the key suggestions could be implemented in phases.

The policy has suggested that physical education be implemented as a compulsory subject in the syllabus of every public school across the state. All children in the state aged between 6 and 14 years have to be involved in at least half- hour a day of organised physical activity/sport.

It has suggested that the government constitute “Karnataka Kreeda Aayoga,” an empowered statutory institution, comprising representatives from government, sports and civil society to examine, monitor issues of sports in the state.

It has set a goal that athletes training in Karnataka win at least 4 gold medals at the Olympics and the state be regularly placed within the top 3 (in terms of medal tally) at every edition of the National Games.

It has recommended that a multi-sports competition should be organised in every taluk headquarters every quarter.

Every taluk and town municipality need to have one active community sports centre and every district at least one sports career counselling and information cell.

The number of qualified sports coaches in Karnataka needs to be  increased ten-fold to at least 1,000 by 2030, the policy states.