Sport can be used as a medium for solving social problems in India

Sport can be used to help in the development of the common man in India

“Sports can play a role of improving the lives of whole community.”

- Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of United Nations

India, a country with a population of more than one billion, is emerging as a world superpower due to its economic growth despite a number of adversities. A report by the Mckinsey Global Institute estimates that if India grows at the current rate, the country will emerge as the fifth largest consumer market in the world by 2025. The rapid growth in the ‘middle class population’ will play an instrumental role in establishing the nation as a global economic super player. The report also indicates that the spending of the middle class population will rise from $380 billion in 2008 to $1.5 trillion by 2025.

Confirming the progress of the Indian economy, Mr. Robert B. Zoellick, the former President of the World Bank, once said that India would play a key role in the recovery process of the global financial turmoil.

However, a large section of the population of India remains deprived of the results of this economic progress. In 2010, the World Bank reported that 32.7% of the population of India is below the International Poverty Line, making the country home to one-third of the world’s poor.

Illiteracy is another major concern. Literacy, as defined in the Census operations, is the ability to read and write in any language. According to the Census Report of 2011, the literacy rate in India is 74%, which implies that the rest of the population still remains illiterate. It is pertinent to mention here that the literacy level of the country is below the world average of 84%. Moreover, the literacy rate in male population (82.14%) is much higher than that of the female population (65.46%), which indicates the gender inequality in terms of literacy in India.

The Right to Education Act had been introduced in India to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the age group of 6 to 14 years. However, almost 8 million children are still out of school, which clearly indicates that serious initiatives should be adopted to achieve the purpose of education for all. The Education for All – Global Monitoring Report 2010, published by UNESCO, specifies that 28% of grade three students in rural India could not subtract a two digit number from another, and only a third could tell the time properly.

Now, the question is whether an alternative education system through the medium of competition or sports can be implemented to help the under-served communities of India in moulding their future.

“At first, children must gather knowledge through their life because children are in love with their life, and it is their first love. All its colour and movement attract their eager attention”.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Sport plays a pivotal role in the process of overall development of the youth. According to UNESCO, “Sports and physical education provide the foundations necessary for the development and well-being of younger people in society and the educational system.” Considering the overall impact of sports on the youth, Swami Vivekananda said, “You will be nearer to heaven through football than through study of Gita.”

The objective of the alternative education system through competition or sports should be to empower the deprived communities of the country to build their future. This will generate awareness on issues like social, environmental, health and hygiene among these children. This informal educational programme will be specially designed to provide basic understanding on counting, spelling, word making and fundamental arithmetic. Emphasis will be given to the slightly older individuals so that they can concentrate on creating a road to the future for self-employment or jobs through skill developmental initiatives.

This system will also help in generating employment as trainers will be appointed for teaching and training. The individuals who will be passing out from this system may also be appointed as trainers and may be treated as the role models for the rest of the community.

This system of education can be demonstrated with one example. A village of India can be divided into a few parts and the residents of one part should be given the responsibility of sweeping and cleaning the area of another part, where they do not reside. This programme will be conducted in a competitive spirit and will be named ‘Neighbourhood Cleaning Competition’, at the end of which some rewards, either in cash or in kind, may be given to the winning team. This programme will give the participants important lessons in cleaning, social bonding and cohesiveness, teamwork, etc. Similar programmes can be implemented for water cleaning in the neighbourhood, tree planting, etc.

This is the time for us to realize that sport is not confined only to attractive and million or billion dollar events. Sports can be used to solve social problems too. The social side of sports should be explored, and we should hope that social entrepreneurs will come forward to create, organize and direct ventures to solve social problems through the medium of sports.