JUNIOR CENMUN 2021

STUDY GUIDE

COMMITTEE: Ministry of Sports

AGENDA: Enhancing India’s Sports

Infrastructure and Facilities to Make it Globally

Competent

Table of Content

Sr. No. Topic

1 Letter from the EB

2 Introduction to the Committee

3 Limited Participation of India in Olympics as compared to other table topper countries.

4 India’s Expenditure on Sports

5 Other Relevant Topics

6 QARMA

7 Bibliography & Additional Links for Reference

1. Letter from the EB

Greetings Delegates!

The Executive Board of the Ministry of Sports welcomes you to the CENMUN Conference 2021- the Indian Citizen’s Summit!

While traditional Model United Nations Conferences deal with topics that are global, we decided to take a different route this time by concentrating on issues that we need to address as a nation, thus giving birth to the Indian Citizens Summit.

Sports are an integral part of life around the globe. This is also evident

through the funding that sports and sportspersons get around the

world. However, such a practice is void in India. Even if it is practiced,

it's not effective enough.

This background guide will serve as a foundation for helping you

understand this problem and your starting point to a solution-driven

perspective. It will guide you through various important aspects not just

for MUNs but also to have an educated opinion on the topic.

Remember that whatever decision you make today may be the changing

instrument for our leaders tomorrow and the countless sportspersons

across the country waiting for support.

We are looking forward to a great debate!

All the Best!

Regards,

Executive Board

Ministry of Sports.

2. Introduction

India has had a rich tradition of sports, both indigenous and modern. A

country that boasts of its population and its craze for sports like Cricket,

one might think that India has the upper hand at winning international

tournaments and a higher probability of winning. However, this is far

from reality. Even though the country has a ministry to look after Sports

Administration and its proliferation, the country has seldom created

records or maintained the created records, having success in a few sports

while completely neglecting the others.

With the onset of modern games like Cricket, India is one of the few

countries that have managed to retain the popularity of indigenous games

like Gilli-danda, kabaddi, akhada wrestling, kho kho; martial arts like

musti yuddha, kalarippayattu, silambam, marma adi, amongst its

population. India has also hosted several sporting events like the Asian

Games (1951 and 1982), Cricket World Cup (1987, 1996, and 2011), Hockey

World Cup and the Commonwealth Games (2010), and many upcoming.

Despite all these positive developments and sentiments towards sports,

the plight of our country in sports is quite evident through the frequency

of tournaments won and the size of the delegation sent to International

Tournaments. We collectively are responsible for the loss of every medal

at international tournaments and not just the sportspersons. There are

several levels to the argument of India's performance at these

tournaments, at the heart of which lies one word- Lack. Lack of

infrastructure, lack of interest, lack of funds, lack of adequate training,

and many other lacks and system loopholes that require attention.

It is the responsibility of this committee to not just identify but also

thoroughly study the reasons behind this problem and develop adequate

measures to tackle this problem.

3. Limited Participation of India in Olympics as

compared to other table topper countries

India at Rio Olympics

Count of the delegation sent by India to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

India has one of the worst Olympic medal records, and there are several

reasons for this reality, and a mere statistical comparison won't work to

understand the complex reasons. Several factors affect India's poor

performance, following are a few of it:

1. Lack of Money.

Even though India has one of the fastest-growing economies, the

funding provided to the Sports sector is in a very sorry percentage.

The Indian Olympic Association too agrees with how underfunded

the sports sector of our country is. Let us consider the case of India’s

only star performed in the Winter Olympics so far- Shiva Keshavan,

who, despite having won several medals and accolades for the

country, still had to crowdfund his participation in the Sochi Winter

Olympics. It is not just the journey to the Olympics but also

everything before the Olympics- the training, the equipment, etc.

that are expensive. If we look at the frequency and the background

of the sportspersons who represent India at the Olympics, we will

see a growing trend of sportspersons from rural areas breaking the

odds. These sportspersons only receive aid from the private sector

if they win medals in popular sports. In the case of Shiva, even after

winning countless medals, he struggled to find a sponsor till he

eventually found one. This attitude of non-funding is not limited to

the government alone, we also need to consider the thoughts of the

common folk towards sports and its proliferation.

2. Society and Sports.

Academic excelling is said to be the only source of success in the

Indian subcontinent, and therefore our entire school systems are

framed to progress this goal. Society places a lot of importance on

academic excellence rather than a new approach to all-around

development, and this is quite evident in the student schedules that

each school follows.

India, even today, is shackled in the chains of caste, which is evident

in the arena of sports as well, according to Prof Ronojoy Sen of the

University of Singapore. To reiterate, the majority of the

sportspersons in India come from rural backgrounds, which are

traditional and, in cases, even hold on to the caste system, which not

all athletes can break free from and advance, thus cutting short their

sporting career. Sportspersons are often discouraged from pursuing

to top levels. Such a system also gives way to social stratification in

sports, meaning different castes tend not to play sports together.

"The lower castes constitute the bulk of India's population, and

these lower castes are also the ones who don't have access to

education, don't have access to good nutrition, health," Prof Sen

says. This also leads us to another important issue- Access and lack.

3. Access and Lack.

Most of the sporting facilities available in India, such as Netaji

Subhas Institute of Sports, Narendra Modi Stadium, etc., are

concentrated in metropolitan cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata,

Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, far away from the areas that are sourcing

sportspersons- the rural area. Let's take the example of Meerabai

Chanu, who had to board trucks every day to reach in time for

training in her initial training days. While we celebrate the spirit of

our athletes, this shouldn't be used as an excuse for us to not come

up with better facilities. Even the facilities that are available in

Metropolitan cities are good, but they are not well maintained.

Sportspersons don't seem to have access to training areas, funding,

and proper coaching. However, infrastructure is just one side of the

argument. If we consider inadequate infrastructure or nutrition to

be holding back India, we need to reshape our argument and

consider the countless FIFA World Cups, several of which are won

by countries such as Brazil and Uruguay, where the infrastructure

is shambolic and most of the Brazilian players belonging to the

favelas of Rio. Joy Bhattacharjya highlights a different problem

which is the lack of a local sporting culture. “In India, there is no

investment of the local community in sports. They do not watch

matches; they do not come to cheer on their kids.” He contrasts

this with the US, where they tell you proudly at gas stations that

this was a guy who used to be our high school football hero

because high school football is watched in the country.

4. Popularity.

India is well known for its cricket team, which translates into the

support it receives within the country and outside it. Due to its

popularity, it is easier to have its facilities and funding to be in place.

However, other sports and athletics are not as popular as Cricket.

Therefore the talent pool for Cricket is much larger for it than other

sports, in some cases even absorbing talent from other sports due to

its popularity.

5. Economy and Sports.

At the Tokyo Olympics, it was noticed that the top 10 countries in

the medals tally won 54% of all the medals, and eight of them are

high-income countries, thus indicating that the size of the economy

is strongly linked to a country's performance at the Olympics.

However, there are a few exceptions, such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and

Ukraine. It is also noticed that other factors such as the size of the

population and the Human Development Index have little bearing

on a nation's performance at the Olympics.

The top three countries in the medal tally for Tokyo 2020- The US, China, and Japan, also have good GDPs. Between 1992 and 2021, 65% of high-income and upper-middle-income countries, 27% of lower-middle-income countries, and 37% of low-income countries won at least one Olympic Medal.

4. India’s expenditure on Sports

Whenever we try to assess the performance of India's sportspersons at the

Olympics, the model of sports governance and financial irregularities are

often blamed for the lack of competitive edge in sports other than Cricket.

The Government of India allocated Rs 2826.92 Crores for sports in the

2020-2021 Annual Budget, a 50 crore increase from the previous budget.

The Khelo India initiative saw a hike of Rs 312.42 crores and was allocated

Rs 890.42 crores compared to Rs 578 crore in 2019-20. On the other hand,

the National Sports Development Fund saw a reduction of ₹ 27.15 crores

from ₹77.15 crores in 2019-20 to ₹ 50 crores in 2020-21. National Sports

Federations saw the highest decrease after Finance Minister allocated ₹

245 crores, ₹ 55 crores less than the previous financial year, according to

The Wire. The budget for meritorious sportspersons saw a 40/5 reduction

from the last financial year. It is important to note that these figures are

from the annual budget 2020-21, presented in January 2020, when the

pandemic was not predicted in India.

The Target Olympic Podium Scheme was launched in 2014, a flagship

program of the Sports Ministry of India. It provides financial assistance to

potential Olympic medal winners. It takes into consideration the

performance of Indian athletes in the past three years and provides them

with personal coaches, staff fees, cost of travel during competitions,

purchase of equipment, and pocket allowance. In the last Olympics (Rio

2016), India spent Rs 36.85 crore under Target Olympic Podium Scheme.

Nearly half of that amount was spent on shooting which was India’s most

successful Olympic sport in the previous three games.

Shooting is an expensive sport, requiring the import of equipment from

other countries. However, shooting failed to bring any medal. Athletics

received the second-highest funding of Rs 7.80 crore in 2016, which didn't

bear fruit. Out of the Rs 36.85 crore, Rs 30.49 crore had gone to disciplines

that didn't meet its goals. On 1.66% of the total TOPS Fund went to the

fields that brought India two medals- PV Sindhu for Badminton and

Sakshi Malik for Wrestling.

TheUnited Kingdom allocated around Rs 9000 crore on sports

infrastructure and training in the annual sports budget, whereas India

spent only one-third of the UK, Rs 3200 crore, on youth affairs and sports,

before 2016. The UK WON 67 medals against India's two at Rio. In a tweet

from 2016, Abhinav Bindra pointed out that a medal cost UK 5.5 million

pounds, and India needs to make such investments to win more medals.

The way forward points towards private funding, like in the USA, where

a large number of athletes are privately funded. Individual athletes had

started their own funding portal for donations from the general public.

This resulted in only 10% of the US Olympic Committee's finance being

spent on athletes in Rio 2016. It reflected well; the USA finished first.

China is known for its aggressive state-sponsored promotion of sports.

In India, before the 2016 Olympics, Indian Olympic Association (IOA)

received donations from Reliance Jio, Amul, Tata Salt, Edelweiss

Financial Services, Herbalife, Li Ning, and SBJ. Sakshi Malik had also

thanked JSW Sport, a foundation funded by the OP Jindal group, after

becoming India's first medal winner in Rio Games, as reported by

Hindustan Times. However, unlike NSDF, where the contributions and

sponsorships are open and documented, private funding to individual

athletes is not. And most recently, the JSW Group has come on board to

be the official sponsor of Team India in the Tokyo Olympics and has

agreed to pledge sponsorship support of ₹ 1 crore to IOA. In 2018, the

Sports Ministry earmarked ₹ 100 crores for funding of the athletes for the

preparation of Tokyo Olympics 2020, which took place this year. While

the number of medals won cannot be equated to the investments made,

since medals are not the only measure of success, India nonetheless needs

to invest more and put in a new model of sports governance in action.

5. Other Relevant Topics

• The Indian Army’s ‘Mission Olympics Wing’, A Case Study (Link

in Bibliography).

• Maintenance of existing sports facilities.

• Life of Athletes post-winning medals.

• India’s attitude towards sports.

• Development of rural sports infrastructure.

• Bridging gender gaps in sports and accessibility to sports.

6. Questions a Resolution Must Answer

(QARMA)

➢ How can India adopt a new policy to ensure infrastructure and

facilities for sports? Should it draw inferences from other countries,

especially the other third-world countries?

➢ How can India develop a proper mechanism of fund flow and

allocation? Can the existing ones improve?

➢ Can India shift its infrastructure to a balance between rural and

urban areas?

➢ How can India involve other stakeholders in order to better India’s

chance at winning medals at the Olympics?

7. Bibliography & Additional Links for

Reference

➢ https://thelogicalindian.com/story-feed/sports/how-much-does-india-invest-in-olympic-athletes-29238

➢ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36941269 ➢ https://thewire.in/sport/has-india-always-had-a-strong-sporting-

culture ➢ https://www.business-standard.com/article/sports/over-450-

athletes-training-under-indian-army-s-mission-olympics-wing-

121081001801_1.html

➢ https://www.thehindu.com/data/data-does-economy-determine-a-

countrys-performance-at-olympics/article35899178.ece

➢ https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/indian-

olympics-sports-gold-medal-neeraj-chopra-tokyo-2020-7444785/

➢ https://yas.nic.in/