Ranchi
In her heydays, athlete Geeta Kumari had bagged all the gold medals in State-level walking competitions between 2011 and 2019. She added a further six medals in the East Zone competitions, and two medals at the junior national championships.
Less than a year later, in June 2020, Geeta was given Rs 50,000 financial aid and a Rs 3,000-monthly stipend after her ordeal became public: She was selling vegetables on the streets of Ramgarh to make a living.
Shekhar Bose, former Director of Physical Education at Ranchi University and a well-known Volleyball player of his times, admitted that most budding talent in the State face financial worries, coming as they do from humble origins.
For instance, Bose points out how most players joining coaching camps these days do so for the free kits. “They play for a few years, but their goal remains to get a decent job, and not the game. They stop playing when they gain employment. Sometimes they get too frustrated chasing down jobs and not getting them. This lack of dedication on part of the players weakens them and the sport,” he points out.
He recalls: “During our times, in Volleyball alone, more than 150 players secured decent jobs in various organizations. It isn’t the case now.”“However, after securing jobs, the players also need to discharge their official responsibility, apart from playing regularly. This balancing act is very important,” Bose tells The Indian Tribal.
Private and public sector entities have been playing a part in nurturing sports in Jharkhand, but Bose says more effort from everyone — the Jharkhand government, sports associations, and individual players is needed.
The Tata Sports Academy has been playing an important role in the sports sector in Jharkhand. It has even popularised the so-called elite pastimes of golf, mountaineering, and water sports.
Several other public sector undertakings such as the Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) with operations in the State have been doing their bit. It runs a sports university in Ranchi.
This apart, influential political heavyweights like Union Tribal Affairs Minister and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda and former State Minister Sudesh Mahto too have made honest efforts to propagate a healthy sports culture.
But then, sports associations too fall woefully short in ensuring that sports quota job vacancies in various organizations are being filled up on time. Employers rarely execute their own policies when it comes to these reserved positions.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren launched the Jharkhand Sports Policy 2022 in Ranchi in September this year, aiming to reduce the bottlenecks from the path of sportspersons in excelling at national and international events. The Sports Policy, made for a period of five years, is the second such policy framework in Jharkhand. The last such policy was made in 2007.
The Jhakhand Sports Policy, 2022 aims to create India’s first sports digital database for all the players of Jhakhand, establishment of a sports university, reservation for sportspersons in jobs and educational institutions, and direct recruitment of Jharkhand players to the second, third and fourth-grade state government jobs, assistance money for players and coaches.
Provision has also been made in the Jharkhand Sports Policy, 2022 regarding rural sports centres, sports academies, sports science, sports talent search, sports infrastructure development, coach development, physical fitness programme, sports branding and transparency and hosting league matches.
As per the policy, a special initiative will be taken for a road map in football, archery and athletics and State Sports Development Fund will be created to promote the sports environment in the state.
For the State government, its weakest link has always been to ensure proper implementation of its policies. More often than not, benefits of State’s sport policies fail to reach the intended beneficiaries, said Bose, asking, “The State government fixed sports quota jobs but is it being executed?”
It has not been too different at the Centre as well with many an instance of promising athletes ending up with nothing. While the Centre’s Khelo India initiatives at the school and university levels have been a welcome change given the scale and standards of its conduct, whether or not it will yield results by way of a secured future for the sportspersons in the long run remains to be seen.
