NEW DELHI: Aiming for 50 medals in the 2024 Olympic games, the Niti Aayog on Wednesday released a 20-point action plan to hit the target.
Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the action plan (Let’s play) aimed to initiate “debate among stakeholders and the public at large”.
Kant said the passing of the National Sports Code and Sports Bill, 2013, was long delayed and needed to be enacted at the earliest to ensure structural changes in policies.
The bill, has has been plagued by administrative and political bottlenecks and the absence of a consensus on fixing terms and tenures of sports administrators since 2013.
The bill seeks to fix the age limit of sports administrators. The action plan consists of short-term and long-term agendas to meet the target of winning 50 medals in 2024. The short-term vision is for 4 to 8 years, while the long-term vision is for 8 to 15 years.
The plan also recommends that the schools include sports as part of their curriculum and award marks, besides advocating equal pay for sports teachers. The performance in sports should be given equal priority as other academic subjects, the Niti Aayog said, while adding that the performance in sports can be added to the overall evaluation.
The Niti Aayog has also advocated that the age limit for training of sportspersons be lowered from the current 12 years to eight years. The planning body has also advocated encouraging and identifying children, as young as five, who show a talent in sports.
Taking a leaf out of Jamaica and Keya’s book, the Niti Aayog has suggested that a few sports be identified and focused upon.