Bhubaneswar: To promote sports from grassroot level to turn Odisha a global sporting hub, the State Government has drafted first ever Sports Policy and sought views and suggestions from different stakeholders.
The Sports and Youth Services Department has drafted the Sports Policy, 2024, which says that Odisha is poised to become a global sporting centre having hosted prominent national and international events, attracted a highly qualified coaching ecosystem and established state-of-the art sports facilities.
The Policy sets the direction for the state to further broad base talent pool for every sport, integrating physical wellness as part of education, holistic infrastructure from grassroots to elite levels, sports talent identification and nurturing, coach and PET development programmes, optimizing use of sports facilities. These initiatives shall lead the state to establish a holistic sport ecosystem, it said.
The state is committed to leveraging the benefits of sports and physical activity to enhance talent search. Additionally, it envisions ambitious participation targets for the youth of the state. The state aims to have 75% of children in schools engaging in sports activities by 2029.
Schools in Odisha will be guided to take initiatives to promote awareness on being active for 60 minutes a day in line with WHO’s guidelines. Targeted efforts will be taken to identify and address barriers to participation among children.
Spotting talent from grassroots level, nurturing of identified talent and providing support for training to succeed at national and international levels is key to developing elite sports persons from the State. For this, the Government is going to start Odisha Khel Ratna Khoj Abhiyaan, a sporting talent search programme.
Under the programme, school children between the age of 08 to 17 years displaying sporting talent in various intra-school and inter-school competitions will be identified. The identified talent will thereafter undergo the next round of evaluation by a District level Talent Scouting Team (D-TST).
Candidates identified will thereafter be assessed by the State level Talent Scouting Team (S-TST) through sports-specific objective assessment tests and state level competitions, as per the draft Policy.
Those athletes who perform exceptionally well at state level and in hostel programs shall be kept under the monitoring cohort programs of the respective sport High Performance Centre (HPC).
An annual Sports Calendar will be developed in consultation with the Department of School and Mass Education and Department of Higher Education to align with the academic calendar. This will enable students to take part in state level sports competitions without disrupting the academic routine.
The policy proposed to make Physical Education a subject in schools along with a mandatory annual examination in each class. Education institutes should be encouraged to set-up sporting facilities for all the students to have the opportunity to participate in multiple sports, it said.
The state has established High-Performance Centres across various sports disciplines, including Hockey, Swimming, Athletics, Gymnastics, Shooting, Weightlifting, Football, Badminton, Archery, Kho-Kho, and Sports Climbing.
The state is also home to the largest Sports Science Centre in the country. These centres will serve as pivotal training facilities for elite athletes who aim to bring laurels to both the state and the country. All HPCs will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and upgraded with latest equipment in line with the advancements in respective sports.
Similarly, the state will establish world class facilities for sportsmen and women. These will be used for hosting major global and national events.
The state will establish regional and district level infrastructure facilities for encouraging grassroots participation across sports and districts. The state will also establish five sports academies in every district for traditional sports and District-level Sports Academies to cater to popular sports of respective districts.
Besides, the State Government will support setting up of sports nurseries in every block. The state will establish one Astroturf based open air Gymnasium and one Sports Nursery in every block of the state. These facilities will provide grassroots sports training for athletes between the ages 8 to 17 years.
The state has also planned to become a hub for emerging sports and will set up a state-of-the-art E-Sports arena cum training centre. The arena will be the first of its kind in the state and will be equipped with all the facilities that enable the state to develop a holistic E-sports ecosystem.
To provide quality coaching to the athletes, coaches with international exposure will be made available to athletes and capacity will be enhanced in technical expertise in each sports discipline.
Further, it was proposed to set up a Sports University in the state under the Odisha Khel Ratna Khoj Abhiyaan. The University will develop and offer various new courses. The State will also promote Yoga and Indigenous Sports, and sports tourism.
To encourage the sports persons, the State will felicitate achievers in sports through adequate rewards and recognitions at various levels. This will lead to the creation and strengthening of a pool of talented players & coaches and motivate many others to get involved in sports & make a career in the field. The state is committed to supporting outstanding athletes through financial assistance.
The State Government in association with Odisha Olympic Association (OOA), National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and State Sports Associations will work towards a policy of zero tolerance to doping in sports. The State Government will facilitate regular anti-doping workshops for coaches as well as athletes of different age groups to educate them about doping in sports. Sportspersons found guilty of doping will be stripped off awards, rewards and other incentives given to them by the State Government or its agencies
The State Government is committed to safeguarding the rights of sportspersons in terms of harassment and abuse. To this extent, mandatory trainings on Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) and Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) will be organized for employees of State Government, Coaches and 17 PETs in the State and ensure that all stakeholders such as sports academies, sports facilities, sports hostels and HPCs adhere to such practices.