Desired level of support is lacking; vacancies of coaches in SAI impacting sportspersons

New Delhi, Mar 7 (UNI) Vacancies of coaches in Sports Authority of India adversely impacts the sportspersons and urgent steps should be taken for filling up of the vacancies of coaches so as to ensure that the country attains high position in sports, stated Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development on Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
The committee, headed by Rajya Sabha MP Dr Satyanarayan Jatiya, expressed concern that around half of the selected players were not joining the academies due to lack of adequate education facilities, adequate financial support, and felt that the desired level of support needed to encourage the players is lacking which must be addressed promptly to win more medals and reach the higher goal of being in the list of top ten performing countries in sports.
The Three Hundred and Fifteenth Report of the Committee on the Demands for Grants for the year 2020-21 (Demand No. 101) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports was presented on March 6 to Parliament.
“SAI should explore the possibilities of roping in agencies like, State Governments and its bodies, Public Sector Undertakings, Corporate Sector etc. for selecting / training players for extending the SAI’s outreach to those areas,” it said.
“Coaches also need international exposure to keep them prepared and updated about the best practices in sports going on around the world and recommends that our coaches should be sent for training / foreign coaches should be hired for betterment of the coaching standards in the country,” it added.
The Committee said preparation for 3 major upcoming sports events within a period of 2 years need to be supplemented and fast tracked to accomplish the target set for reaching in the list of top ten medal winner countries in Olympics.
“Efforts need to be intensified for identifying and training more players right from young age and make them compete in more competitions,” it added.
The Committee observed that the expenditure pattern of different schemes run by the Department of Youth Affairs shows that much of expenditure in some schemes is unspent in the last quarter of the financial year.
“Department should spend its allocation in a time-bound manner as in case of surrender of funds, the allocations in the subsequent financial year are restricted by the Finance Ministry having cascading effect on the schemes,” it said.
The committee said it should be ensured that reduction in allocations to National Youth Corps and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan should not adversely affect their programmes and all the programmes of different schemes may run in coherence and budget be distributed accordingly. Manpower shortage in NYKS should be expeditiously addressed by filling up the long time vacant posts.
“Additional allocation should be sought for increasing the number of National Youth Corps volunteers as the role present allocation could be restrictive,” it added.
“Youth Parliament programmes help in developing the leadership of youth and enrich their understanding and knowledge of issues concerning the society and recommends that allocation should be utilised judiciously as Village level programmes have been merged with Block level due to mismanagement,” it further added.
“Effective utilisation of enhanced allocation for NSS be used for increasing the number of volunteers and State Governments also be helped to set up more NSS units and the shortage of 50 per cent in the existing strength of NSS be up expeditiously filled up as they adversely affect the functioning,” the committee said.
Major international sporting events in Boxing, Shooting, Athletics, Wrestling, Archery etc. and Olympic Games-2020, Paralympic Games-2020, Commonwealth Youth Games-2021, Commonwealth Youth Games-2022, Asian games-2022 and Youth Olympics-2022 are lined up in coming 1-2 years.
“Sportspersons be selected and trained to compete with an aim of winning medals and budget enhancement be pursued with the Ministry of Finance at RE stage as allocations under some schemes viz. Assistance to NSFs, and NSDF have been reduced,” it said.
The Committee also stated that Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior is promoting the progammes of Physical Education and Sports in the country and efforts may be made to extend necessary help to the Institute for preparing aspirants desiring to excel in the field of Sports at National and International level.
“Rise in number of positive cases over the years needs to be contained quickly for which awareness programmes against Doping may be run to eradicate this menace. One Dope Testing Lab appears insufficient and one more should be considered. IRMS system of NDTL, New Delhi should be urgently upgraded to ensure that testing standards of our lab remain at par with international standards,” it added.
“Despite various codes and guidelines being in place, all is not well in respect of functioning of NSFs, which adversely affects sportspersons and eventually the sports. Holding regular elections of Sports Federations should be ensured and their functioning be monitored and audited to ensure that they stay free of any malpractices and act impartially,” it added.
Sports Sciences Development is of prominence for sports and areas having good concentration of players should be covered for such Institutes to provide easily accessible support to athletes forgiving their best performing in games.
The Committee reiterates its recommendation made in its report on the Khelo India Scheme for widening the coverage of the scheme by identifying new places of training viz. private residential schools having sports infrastructure for at least four sports disciplines of international standards and develop them as Model Residential Sports Schools in addition to existing facilities to identify more potential medal winners and hopes that the Department would expeditiously explore the possibilities in this regards and keep it apprised.
“Differently-abled Sportspersons need extra care for their performance and as the Khelo India has subsumed the promotion of sports among the persons with disabilities component, the Department should continue giving adequate attention to them,” it said.
National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) which provides financial assistance to various institutes and sportspersons has seen steep fall in the contribution from Private and Public Sector in NSDF which is a cause of concern.
The Committee suggests that as PSUs are government undertakings, their funds belong to Government and should be directly sought under CSR from Public Sector Companies or else the Government should take it directly from PSUs into its financial resources and then give it to the Department of Sports.
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