Bringing laurels to the country, Haryana’s sportspersons have proved their mettle in all kinds of sports, including boxing, wrestling, kabaddi, and athletics. At the same time, to promote sports and encourage sportspersons, planning and efforts have also been made for the training and promotion of sports at the state and national levels. In this episode, Khelo India was organised by the government. In this, players from all the states and union territories are selected.
Haryana remained at the forefront in this matter as well, as the maximum number of players have been selected from Haryana for Games India in the men’s and women’s categories. It has been revealed in the statistics that out of all the players who have been selected for the Games in India, more than one-sixth of them are from Haryana. On the other hand, in this matter, Haryana has defeated all the states of the country.
Official figures have revealed that a total of 2510 players have been selected from all the states across the country under Khelo India, and out of these, there are almost equal numbers of players in both male and female categories. The total number of players, including male and female players, is 1271 and 1239, respectively. Of the total number of players selected, 406 have been selected from Haryana, including 200 females and 206 males.
Haryana is at the forefront of the country in terms of selected players. On the other hand, after Haryana, Maharashtra is in second place with 312 players, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and adjoining Delhi with 173, 159, and 148 sportspersons, respectively, who receive financial assistance under the scheme.
Athletes identified under the Khelo India Scheme have the option to enrol for residential or non-residential training and get pocket money of Rs. 10,000 per month from the month they join the training. An additional Rs 5.08 lakh per athlete per year is supported for facilities such as coaching, sports science support, diet equipment, consumables, insurance charges, etc. at the academies recognised under Khelo India where a Khelo India athlete joins for residential training. It is pertinent to mention that Kartikey Sharma, an MP, sought information pertaining to the matter during the ongoing session.
One of the officials said that the sports infrastructure facilities available at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) have sufficient capacity to cater to the training needs of a large number of athletes, including high-performance training for outstanding athletes.