Experts weigh in on importance of sport in child’s formative years during Get Kids To Play summit

The event comprised four-panel discussions where experts and stakeholders weighed in on the measures that can be taken to ensure equal emphasis is laid on sport during a child’s formative years.

Panellist speaker (from left to right), Saumil Majmudar, along with Dr Nanaki J. Chadha, Sujatha Kshirsagar and Bharat Sachdeva during the first panel discussion at the Get Kids to Play Summit, in New Delhi on Friday. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

How can more kids in India be encouraged to participate in sports and make it part of their daily lives? Answering that complex question was the objective of the Get Kids To Play summit organised by Sportz Village at the NDMC Convention Centre in New Delhi on Friday.

The event comprised four-panel discussions where experts and stakeholders weighed in on the measures that can be taken to ensure equal emphasis is laid on sport during a child’s formative years.

Colonel Gopal Karunakaran, CEO of Shiv Nadar School, felt sport needs to be viewed just like any other subject in school.

“A major mistake we make is we see sport as something outside education. We think education is Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and English. But when we see sport as another subject or area, we realise it needs to have the same importance as anything else. Because the lessons you will get from sport at a very young age are the lessons of life,” he said.

“The answer is not just in the number of physical education teachers but also the status they are given. This means if they are equal in status to the other teachers, in terms of remuneration, then you have already made a good start. Because you have to believe sport is education. That it is like any other discipline. For us, it has been a very important element,” said Karunakaran, a panel member for the topic ‘Sports in Education — Opportunity and Impact’.

The other panellists for this session were Arijit Ghosh (Vice-President, Academic, Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools), Raj Singh Bhandal (Trustee, Education Today) and Sujit Panigrahi (co-founder of Fitness365).

While children pursuing sports are deemed to be successful only if they go on to become elite athletes, Bharat Sachdeva, Head of Department, Physical Education, Step by Step School, said the mindset of parents needs to change. 

“Parents play a very important role in the entire ecosystem. My interaction with the parents has been to help them understand how important fitness and sport are for the mental growth of the brain and how the child will become smarter or innovative and good at problem-solving,” he said.

“It has been proven in the last few years how sport has positively impacted children’s behaviour and their approach towards life. The parents need to understand the value it will have in the long run. The child may not become a national champion or an elite athlete, but what someone is learning from a formative age is what we need to embrace,” he added.

Sachdeva was part of the first-panel discussion that also featured sports and performance psychologist Dr. Nanaki J Chadha, Sujatha Kshirsagar (president of Career Launcher), and national-level fencer and student Kyrene Solanki. The session was moderated by Saumil Majmudar, CEO of Sportz Village.

The third session, titled Broken Ladder — Pathway from Grassroot to Elite Sports, featured Manish Kumar Singh (Head, CSR, B.C. Jindal Group), Nikhil Pant (CEO — REACHA), Suheil Tandon (Director-Founder, Pro Sport Development) and sports journalist Vijay Lokapally.

The topic for the final panel discussion was ‘Scaling Impact through Sports’. It featured Manu Khanna (Senior Manager, Sports, HCL Foundation), Priti Srivastava (Senior Vice-President, Advocacy, Reliance Industries Limited) and Desh Gaurav Sekhri (Co-founder and Director, Sports and Society Accelerator).