CHENNAI: From consumption to production, India seems to be on top of the doping ladder. World Anti-Doping Agency chief Witold Banka said as much. Doping is a serious problem in India and it is not just limited to positive cases.
"The biggest producer of Performance Enhancing Drug (PEDs) and steroids is in India,” he said on the final day of the Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network (GAIIN) Final Conference in Delhi. He conceded that it is a serious problem more so because “the Olympic Games, World Championships, major sporting events are not possible without WADA’s stamp, without WADA's compliance regulations.”
“India is very ambitious when it comes to organizing sporting events with future plans,” he said. “I remember when I was at the IOC session (in Mumbai), where the Prime Minister Modi declared the vision for the future, including the hosting of Olympic Games. It will not be possible without a strong anti-doping policy.”
Banka said that doping is a problem in India. Apart from the positive cases, he said there is no doubt that the biggest production of illegal performance-enhancing drugs and illegal steroids is in India. “The main target, the biggest producer of the world, is in India,” he said when asked about the launching of WADA’s Operation Upstream in India. “There is no doubt that the biggest production of illegal performance-enhancing drugs and illegal steroids is in India.”
This is one of the most ambitious projects of the WADA that targets supply chains of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) and is in collaboration with the INTERPOL and other international agencies. In India, WADA has requested the Central Bureau of Investigation to collaborate with them to curtail the menace. “I had a very productive meeting with the CBI and they offered to help. We believe that we can work hand-in-hand to tackle this problem,” he said, without giving details of the operation in India as it is confidential.
“There is no doubt that we have a problem with doping in India,” the WADA chief said. “But I see the willingness from the government side and from NADA to address this issue. To work stronger on the anti-doping programme here. We need to have a broader education, not only to catch and punish, but to prevent and support, especially young athletes and the children.”
The WADA chief also said that he had a constructive dialogue with the sports ministry and NADA. Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya too was part of the conference as well. “We have changed the views. I was very honest and very clear that we, as WADA, expect stronger engagement and commitment,” he said.
The WADA chief said that NADA at the moment is that the focus is now more on the intelligence side. “At NADA, we have strengthened our intelligence and investigation team, and apart from adding resources, we have also added their skillset in the workshop, which was conducted under this project itself. Skills regarding investigation, regarding taking interviews of the suspected athletes, gathering information,” he said. The training was done by WADA officials.
“Our focus should be more to disrupt the supply chains,” said Banka. “If you talk about bringing transparency and trust of athletes, we need a speak-up portal, helpline, email that is actively being monitored by able and active IT, intelligence and investigation teams.”
"The athlete is actually the victim. We have to target supply chains. When 1.8 billion doses of banned Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) are prevented from entering the market by out operations, it gives you an idea of the scale of the danger we face. They represent the lives saved. For perspective, India has a population of 1.4 billion people and even if all of them got a dose of these substances, there would still be several 100 million left. But action like this also sends out a strong message to those who cheat that 'we will infiltrate criminal networks with our whistle-blowers'”WADA's Director of Intelligence and Investigations Gunter Younger, a former head of the Cybercrime Division at the Bavarian Landeskriminalamt (law enforcement agency) in Germany at the Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network (GAIIN) Final Conference
The WADA chief also said that doping should be a criminal offence. That way all involved, including coaches and doctors, in administering PEDs will be punished. He said that in the past there were athletes, coaches, doctors who did not face big sanctions or consequences. “Now we will change for better, bigger consequences of those who are delivering doping to the athletes,” he said. “I encourage governments to criminalise doping. I can say from my example in Poland as a minister of sport and tourism we introduced a new legislation where we criminalised doping. When you give doping to minors and athletes without their knowledge it can be three years in jail. Doping is criminalised for those who are trafficking.” He said that with better intelligence gathering this also can be curbed.
“It's a concern for many years as to how we get the coaches and the doctors involved?” he said. The issue we have is that we focus on the athletes, we test them, they get positive, we have a voluntary interview, this is all we can do. Now we ask the person to speak up against the coach, doctor, etc. Why? Because there are dependencies and there is pressure on the athlete. The athlete is actually the victim of a system so this is where we were thinking of how we can change that.” He said this can be done only if they hit the supply chain. “We target the supply chains because the doctors and the coaches need to get PEDs somewhere. Then we go to the coach and doctors.”