Sportz Village-Get Kids to Play Summit Chennai chapter puts spotlight on media’s focus on inspiring children to take up sports

The forum brought together various stakeholders from across the fraternity under one roof to discuss actionable ways to get the youth and children interested in taking up sports.

Moderator Parminder Gill, Sportz Village CEO & MD Saumil Majmudar, Victor Pravin Kumar - Associate VP, CSR at Sagility India Limited, UNICEF Chennai Head KL Rao, Poornima Shankar - HR & CSR Head of LatentView Analytics India, Dr. Pralay Majumdar - Senior Project Advisor at IIT-M, and LV Navaneeth, CEO of The Hindu Group. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The caravan of ‘Sportz Village-Get Kids to Play Summit’ made a pit stop at IIT-Madras for its third chapter on Wednesday.

The forum brought together various stakeholders from across the fraternity under one roof to discuss actionable ways to get the youth and children interested in taking up sports.

Ayon Sengupta, Editor of Sportstar, threw light on the media’s role in lighting the proverbial spark. “At The Hindu, we focus on covering local age-group sports extensively. It is really heartening for a parent to find their kid’s name in the newspaper,” he said.

L. V. Navaneeth, CEO of The Hindu Group, added that the media must play a role in driving resources to the bottom of the pyramid. He said, “Our role is not only to highlight the problems but also be a part of the solution. What we do at Sportstar Conclaves is a step in the right direction… We need to talk more and get more like-minded people on a shared platform.”

Devi Academy students win the Playmaker Award. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

IIT-Madras professor Dr. Mahesh Panchagnula delivered the keynote address. He said, “We have a plan to admit two students through Sports Excellence channels to each of the 16 B.Tech programmes here. At least one student in each of these departments will be a girl... Our vision is to have the first IITian-Olympian in a few years.”

Naveen Velagapalli, managing trustee of Shraddha Children’s Academy, elucidated the importance of balancing sports and academics. He said, “Although I want more Physical Education periods in my school, I have been unable to do it. There’s pushback from teachers and parents. They say we don’t have time to complete the syllabus.”

The event additionally honoured companies which have come up with game-changing CSR programmes and talented schoolchildren with the Playmaker Awards.