The North Eastern states in India are home to some of India’s most recognised international players. People like M.C. Mary Kom with 2012 Olympics bronze medal and five world amateur-boxingchampion trophies, footballer Baichung Bhutia, boxer L. Sarita Devi with silver medal at the 2014Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Jayanta Talukdar with gold medal and Arjuna Award, weightlifter K. Sanjita Chanu with gold at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, etc. have already put theregion in the world map in a glorious way. While North East India constitutes only about 3.7% ofthe total Indian population, the youth out there are well-known for their inclination towards sports.
Assam and Manipur have synthetic athletic tracks for all-weather competitions. These states havegood number of sponsorships from corporate giants and other public sector-undertakings which helpin promoting physical education and sports in the region. Children are motivated to participate insports from a young age and the general opinion of the people here is that physical education shouldbe implemented as a compulsory part of school and college curriculums.
As the present NDA government is committed to development of sports and North East the Sports Authority of India (SAI) also set up the first office of its Chairperson in Guwahati in 2015 with thehelp of then Union Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, which is facilitating North Easternsportspersons to get an easy access to the Ministry For The Development of Sports. 22.3% (901out of 4031) of girl trainees at SAI centres are trained in the North Eastern States of ArunachalPradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. They are provided with regular sports training in 27 sports disciplines on residential and non-residential basis in 290 SAIsports centres.
After Mr. Sonowal became the Chief Minister of Assam he took it as a challenge to make Assamthe national sports capital of India. As Mr. Sonowal mentioned, “We began a journey to make Assam aglobal sports hub with the South Asian Games. Every championship will take us closer to that goal.”He is a firm believer that if talent is properly harnessed, the North East can produce moresportspersons who can represent the nation at world events. Assam and the North East have somuch of raw talent that goes unnoticed and several budding sportspersons end up at the district andstate level.
Being a storehouse of talent, the region is being accorded top priority by the government. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi has instructed every ministry to accord priority to developmental schemes in the North East because India cannot progress without adequate progress in the North-East region. In sports they have taken immediate steps to hold the Himalayan Region Games in North-East Region. It seems that the Sports Ministry along with the Human Resource Development Ministry are trying to integrate sports with education for the all-round development of the children.
With North Eastern boxers like Mary Kom, Shiva Thapa, L. Sarita Devi and Devendro Singh Boxing has given identity to India at the international level, including Olympics. Guwahati is all set to host the biggest football extravaganza in the world, the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The state government realises the importance of hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 and have given complete support, as this event will be critical in the Chief Minister’s vision of making Assam the sports hub of India. It recently had the India Myanmar Thailand (IMT) car rally and again the state is planning to organise a Brahmaputra Festival to integrate the traditional sports and culture. As a baby step towards Assam’s goal of making Guwahati the Sports Capital of the country, the 1st Elite (Senior) Men’s National Boxing Championship 2016-17, which is the first major event organised in two years by the Boxing Federationof India (BFI) was hosted by the state. The State is hopeful that it will have many tournaments ofsuch stature in the days to come.
It is a matter of pride for the region that sportspersons have given back to their communities by supporting and guiding young athletes from their native lands. Mary Kom Regional BoxingFoundation and the chain of Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools are great examples of this. Withthe presence of football clubs like Shillong Lajong FC, Aizawl FC, North-East United FC, Royal Waliingdoh FC and a host of local sides from the Shillong, Manipur or Mizoram football leagues, people’s following for the sport in the region has seen a steady growth over the last few decades.
Apart from Assam, most of the state governments of the region have been putting in a lot of efforts toupgrade the stadiums as well as the practice sites. Hope all these well-considered measures would help materialising the dreams of North Eastern people about sports and create world class players Indiacan be proud of.
About: Shri Jyotirmoy Barpujari author is a writer and columnist based in Guwahati. Views expressed in the article are author’s personal.(This feature has been contributed by PIB Guwahati)
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