Successful completion of one year of Model Sports Village
New Delhi: Model Sports Village, a novel initiative of IMT Ghaziabad & NGO ”Sports: A Way of Life” in its first year of operation successfully promoted sports literacy at a grass root level and is currently training over 300 youth.
Brainchild of Dr. Kanishka Pandey, India’s first Model Sports Village was started last year in January with a distinct objective to evolve sports culture and increase sports literacy in the twin villages Bahadarpur and KheriViran in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking on completing one year of Model Sports Village, Dr. Kanishka Pandey, Head Sports Research Center – IMT Ghaziabad & President – Sports a way of Life said, “It has been an excellent evolving experience for us. The relentless efforts of our team has successfully augmented in motivating and instilling spirit of sports by making over 300 youth joining our training programme”.
Talking on the changes in the mindset of kids/parents towards sports, Dr. Kanishka elaborated that, “at the start of this initiative in January 2020 a survey was conducted and it showed that only 2 people out of 250 knew what Olympics is. Whereas an online/offline quiz organized later in the month of September revealed that 112 out of 130 people gave correct answers related to Olympics”.
In order to create awareness about sports. KhelPraveshika, sports booklets and sports calendar were distributed. To motivate children to take up sports, a motivation letter was also distributed to the parents of the young kids.
Talking on the reason of establishing India’s first ‘Model Sports Village’ Dr. Kanishka Pandey said, “The Model Sports Village concept is a multi-faceted. Our education system so far has focused more on mental development than on personality and physical development. This, we believe, is unsatisfactory. Our Model Sports Village has basic sports facilities with a focus on athletics and a few Olympics-related sports. It also focuses on the overall development of the local population. I firmly believe that sport can play a crucial role in character building and personality development. What gives me satisfaction is the fact that, we are not only providing basic sports facilities but have also been successful in creating a positive social environment. Two instances need highlighting – Villagers demanding a sport shop instead of a liquor shop sanctioned by the government and a plot of land which was to be used for sporting activities as per government records was recently handed over to us by the villagers for providing sporting facilities to their children after freeing it from illegal possession!”
The ethos behind Model Sports village include:
· Sports and sportspersons are viewed with positivity.
· People understand the values of sports and the impact that sports can have for the betterment of their lives.
· Parents start inculcating the knowledge of sports in their children from a very young age just like they focus on alphabets and numerical.
· Every child/person is associated with at least one sport.
· Sports for girls.
· People participate in sports for fun and entertainment.
· Everyone plays.
It is so overwhelming to see that, if a humble initiative by Sports a way of Life & IMT Ghaziabad can bring around such a paradigm shift in promoting the sports. Imagine the transformation it will bring to the country if every school & college start promoting and emphasizing on the significance of sports along with studies.