Imagine the joy a child will have, when he or she meets Neeraj Chopra, Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya, Sharad Kumar, Devendra Jhajharia, Yogesh Kathuniya and several others, who have brought laurels to the nation! This far-flung dream of millions of school-going children is turning into reality through the ‘Meet The Champion’ Programme. PM Modi’s unique school visit campaign ahead, ‘Meet the champion Programme’ aims to prepare and connect the young school students with the champions.
“Early catch and proper nurture, makes a medals winning culture” could be the adage adopted by India as it has started to make its mark felt in international competitions across various games and sports. During the meeting with Tokyo Olympic heroes at his residence on 16 August, PM Modi asked the athletes to visit 75 schools to meet and inspire students. The Ministry of education and Sports Authority of India are working together to run this mega plan as a ‘Meet the Champions’ programme over the next two years. The aim is to acknowledge and ready the young ones with champion qualities to face the world in any sphere of life.
The athletes are talking about the importance of santulit aahar (balanced diet), fitness and sports at a young age. These visits by Olympians will give school students an insight into their lives and what drives them to excel in their fields and explore. Olympic Gold medallist Neeraj Chopra started off with students from over 75 schools at Sanskardham, Ahmedabad, where he also shared interesting anecdotes about his career with the students. Similarly, Tokyo Olympics Bronze Medallist Bajrang Punia visited Haryana’s Aarohi Model School in Panipat, Paralympic Gold and Silver medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu visited Salem’s Holy Angles Girls’ Matric. Hr. Sec. School, Paralympics bronze medallist Sharad Kumar met students at Cotton Hill Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Trivandrum, Kerala, and so on.
These visits bolster the effort towards nurturing young athletes at school level itself. To support sports saplings – 90 Extension Centres of STC (Sports Authority of India Training Centre), including 60 Khelo India Centres, and 10 Regular Schools which are part of the National Sports Talent Contest (NSTC), are operational under Sports Authority of India. Most of the Extension Centres are operational in schools across the country. Further, under the “State Level Khelo India Centre” vertical of the Khelo India scheme, 04 Kendriya Vidyalayas with residential facilities are operational as Sports Schools since October 2019. Under this vertical ₹1,50,000 per athlete per annum are provided towards expenses of onboarding, lodging, education, training, competition exposure, medical by the Government of India.
In the past few decades, the country has seen exponential growth in sports. As it has pulled its socks by way of providing sports infrastructure at the grassroots level to helping athletes to become professional, results have started to show by providing the world with a glimpse of the multisports nation. ‘Meet The Champion’ Programme is surely adding fuel to this fire in the belly of young ones and setting up a virtuous cycle.
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