All work and no play has, for long, had a detrimental effect on the mind and body of young Indians. But it seems that the government is waking up to the problem — at last. The announcement that an expert committee of the Union ministry of youth affairs and sports is ready with the blueprint of a National Sports Education Board, which will offer students sports-related subjects apart from the regular curriculum, comes as a ray of hope. There are a number of reasons to be optimistic about the possibilities of such a development. For one, children in India are traditionally discouraged by their families — social pressure plays its role too — from pursuing sports as a career even if they excel in it. This tendency to view sports as a non-lucrative professional prospect might be remedied by the NSEB proposal. The latter will enable students to be tested on sports-related subjects along with conventional ones in their board examinations; crucially, they will be offered a chance to defer their exams, a privilege that was hitherto only granted to established athletes, not aspiring ones. Given that sport is largely viewed as an extra-curricular activity to be eventually given up in favour of ‘serious’ subjects, these elements in the NSEB plan might open up avenues for students to pursue a multidisciplinary approach, a trait that is encouraged by most institutions of excellence.

Achieving sporting excellence has been a dream for India. The country’s consistent abysmal showing at the Olympics — it has the worst record in terms of medals per head — is rightly attributed, among other things, to a lack of funding, modern infrastructure and training, bureaucratic meddling as well as — this should not be ignored — unimaginative policy. Arming students interested in sports with intellectual rigour could be beneficial. It would not only offer students a diverse set of disciplines to choose from but also aid the athlete in the application of strategy learnt in the classroom on to the field. If the NSEB succeeds in delivering its goals, it will facilitate a crucial transition, transforming India’s youth into a constituency with able bodies and agile minds.