20-Dec-2020: In major thrust to indigenous games, Sports Ministry includes Gatka, Kalaripayattu, Thang-Ta and Mallakhamba in Khelo India Youth Games 2021

The Sports Ministry has approved the inclusion of four Indigenous Games to be a part of Khelo India Youth Games 2021, scheduled to take place in Haryana. The games include: Gatka, Kalaripayattu, Thang-Ta and Mallakhamba.

Speaking about the decision, Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Kiren Rijiju said, "India has a rich heritage of indigenous sports, and it is  a priority for the Sports Ministry to preserve, promote and popularise these games. There is no better platform than the Khelo India Games where athletes of these games can compete. The games have huge popularity and is telecast across the country by Star Sports, so I am confident that in the 2021 Khelo India Youth Games these four disciplines, along with Yogasana, will get their much deserved attention among sports enthusiasts and youth of the country. In the coming years we will be able to add more indigenous sports at the Khelo Games."

The four selected games represent different parts of the country. Kalaripayattu has its origin from Kerala and has practitioners all over the world; Bollywood actor Vidyut Jammwal being one. Mallakhamba, meanwhile, has been well-known across India and Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have been the hotspots of this sport. Gatka originates from the State of Punjab and this traditional fighting style of the Nihang Sikh Warriors is used both as self-defense as well as a sport. Thang-Ta, a Manipur marital art has passed into oblivion in the recent decades, but the sport will get national recognition again with the help of the Khelo India Youth Games 2021.

“We are glad to know that the Sports Ministry has included Indian ancient martial art Gatka in the Khelo India Youth Games. We are sure that this effort of Khelo India will certainly help to promote and revive a forgotten Indian traditional martial art having a historical significance. In addition this step will give boost to the efforts of National Gatka Association of India in furtherance of creating awareness in the country as well as overseas,” said Harjeet Singh Grewal, President, National Gatka Association of India.

The Thang-Ta federation also confirmed that the competition will vastly popularize the sport. “Over 400 athletes from different States will participate in the competition. We want to be very successful in the competition and this will help us get more recognition nationally and internationally,” said Vinod Sharma, Secretary, Thang-Ta Federation of India.

21-Feb-2020: Prime Minister to Declare Open the First ever Khelo India University Games

The first-ever Khelo India University Games will take off in Odisha with a mega launch event at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Cuttack on February 22, 2020.

Honourable Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi will declare open the multi-disciplinary sporting event through video conference.

The Khelo India University Games are being launched by the Government of India in association with the Government of the State of Odisha.

The Games will be held from 22 February to 1st March 2020 at Bhubaneswar.

This is the largest ever competition held at university level in India and will have about 3500 athletes from over 150 universities across the country taking part in it.

There will be a total of 17 sports namely archery, athletics, boxing, fencing, judo, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, badminton, basketball, football, hockey, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, rugby and kabaddi. The attempt is to make the Khelo India University Games an aspirational competition for India’s youngsters with twin objectives of helping them find the balance between sport and education.

Khelo India Programme, a brain child of the Prime Minister was introduced to revive the sports culture in India at the grass-root level by building a strong framework for all sports played in the country and establish India as a great sporting nation.

Government of India successfully conducted the Khelo India School Games in 2018 and the National Youth Games in 2019 and 2020.

20-Sep-2017: Cabinet approves Revamped Khelo India Programme

The Union Cabinet chaired has approved the revamped Khelo India programme at a cost of Rs.1,756 crore for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20. This marks a watershed moment in the history of Indian sports, as the Programme aims at mainstreaming sport as a tool for individual development, community development, economic development and national development.

The revamped Khelo India Programme would impact the entire sports ecosystem, including infrastructure, community sports, talent identification, coaching for excellence, competition structure and sports economy.

Salient features:

Some of the salient features of the Programme include an unprecedented Pan Indian Sports Scholarship scheme, which would cover 1,000 most talented young athletes each year across select sports disciplines.

Each athlete selected under the scheme shall receive an annual scholarship worth Rs. 5.00 lakh for 8 consecutive years.

This is the first time ever that a long-term athlete development pathway would be made available to gifted and talented youngsters to excel in competitive sports and will create a pool of highly competitive athletes who can compete to win at the world stage.

The Programme aims to promote 20 universities across the country as hubs of sporting excellence, which would enable talented sports persons to pursue the dual pathway of education and competitive sports.

The Programme also aims at creating an active population with healthy life-style.

The Programme would cover about 200 million children in the age group of 10-18 under a massive national physical fitness drive, which will not only measure the physical fitness of all children in the age group, but also support their fitness related activities.

Impact:

The power of sport in promoting gender equity and social inclusiveness is also fully recognized and special measures are provided for to achieve these objectives.
The programme also aims at engaging youth living in disturbed and deprived areas, in sporting activities, to wean them away from unproductive and disruptive activities and mainstream them in the nation-building process.
The programme strives to raise the standards of competition, both at school and college level, to have maximum access to organized sports competitions.
It also includes the use of latest user-friendly technology in all aspects of sports promotion such as, use of mobile apps for dissemination of sports training; National Sports Talent Search portal for talent identification; interactive website for indigenous sports; GIS based information system for locating and using sports infrastructure, etc.
This programme strives to promote “Sports for All” as well as “Sports for Excellence.”