Ministry reviews classification of sports
The sports ministry has created a new ‘high-priority’ category while reclassifying sports disciplines for financial assistance.
Announcing this here on Monday, the ministry has included nine disciplines in the new category that would be eligible for complete support for national and international championships. The nine sports include athletics, badminton, tennis, hockey, wrestling, boxing, weightlifting, archery and shooting.
“To optimally utilise the limited budget under the scheme of assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs), it has been decided that while the existing category of sports disciplines be retained, the sports disciplines in which medals have been won, or India has a chance of winning, at the Olympics, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games (CWG) and world championships need to be incentivised and a new category viz. ‘high priority’ be introduced,” the ministry said.
Besides these, 25 others have been classified as ‘priority’ sports, while the remaining disciplines from the list of 59 sports recognised by the ministry have been classified in the new ‘others’ category. Gymnastics, taekwondo and sepak takraw have gained in the new classification, going up to ‘priority’ from ‘general’ category.
The ‘priority’ sports include those that are either popular mass games or those in which India has won medals in the last Asian Games or CWG. Federations like the paralympic federation and Special Olympics Bharat chapter have also been included for being sections requiring special attention.
The ‘general’ category has been retained, though it has no sports discipline at the moment with criteria for inclusion in it. ‘High priority’ and ‘priority’ sports will receive funding for all national and zonal championships, ranking and qualifying tournaments for major competitions and any other events as decided by a committee headed by the sports secretary. Those in ‘others’, however, will not receive any financial assistance.
However, in line with the government’s emphasis on NSFs generating their own sources of funding, the ministry has made it clear that the federations must tap other sources to finance their operations and that financial support from the government should only be supplemental in nature.
While the guidelines for financial assistance to NSFs were formulated in 2001, the last such review was done in 2008 after the Beijing Olympics with respect to India’s performance in various sports.
The categories: High priority: Athletics, badminton, hockey, shooting, archery, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, boxing.
Priority: Basketball, billiards & snooker, bridge, chess, cycling, equestrian, football, golf, judo, kabaddi, kayaking & canoeing, paralympic rowing, school games, Special Olympic Bharat, squash, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, wushu, yachting, gymnastics, taekwondo, sepak takraw, deaf sports.
Others: Handball, atya patya, ball badminton, baseball, body-building, carrom, cycle polo, fencing, jump rope, karate-do, kho-kho, netball, powerlifting, roll ball, roller skating, shooting ball, soft tennis, softball, tennikoit, tennis-ball cricket, tenpin bowling, tug-of-war, winter games, rugby, motorsports.
==================================