Building for future, a new sporting culture

The new National Sports Policy is an inspiring way of looking at what Indian sport can do

- Sharda Ugra

Sports journalists aware of the reality of Indian sport usually have two responses to its policy documents —either a sigh or a snicker. But, given the National Sports Policy (NSP) 2025 aka Khelo Bharat Niti 2025 has arrived almost a quarter of a century after its last version — during which our elite sport has transformed itself — NSP 2025 must be understood in its context as well as essence: what it is and what it is not.

The NSP is not an action plan; rather, it is a framework of guiding principles, a mission statement meant to give direction to our sporting stakeholders to devise and execute programmes. It has evolved significantly from its 2001 avatar. Its fundamental breakaway is the broad-basing of the very identity of our sport. NSP 2001 treated sport as an entity built around elite excellence and, from there, medal-success in the world.

In NSP 2025, sport in India is to be accessed, treated and spread through multiple forms, of which elite excellence is only a small part. The policy integrates sport to public health and education. Through access, especially to the marginalised, it plays its part in community, business and scientific advancement. NSP 2025 directs sport in the service of a larger population than targeted earlier — the elite and the everyday, people of multiple abilities and identities.

From some perspectives, NSP 2025 is an inspiring way of looking at what Indian sport, if put to its best use, can do — beyond medals and that fickle entity called national pride or national self-esteem. (Frankly, in India, there are many things to be embarrassed about other than medal tallies.)