Curbing the Talented – Social Pressure on Sportspersons

The Olympic games at Rio ended up with a bunch full of desires contrary to the expectations from the second most populous country of the world. India bagged two medals and yet again proved its consistency in giving poor results at the Olympics.

Seeing the golden bird go off lustreless in the congregation of games, the prime minister of India gave his new slogan “the playful kid develops” but in the country where the tag line goes “the playful kid would be beaten” you can hardly expect anything better.

When the geeks are shown behind the pile of books, having a poor health and horn rimmed spectacles while the poor section of the society symbolizes the dusty ragged children focusing more on sports than doing homework.

Sports is always seen as a wholesome development for the children, but when it comes to taking it as a profession things may not be as supportive either from the family or the society. It is viewed that a person adopts sports only because of lack of intellect, poor family background or on the verge of unemployment.

The growing trends of elective subjects show a remarkable enrollments in science and commerce streams showing that parents wanted their children to be doctors and engineers rather than sportspersons.

On being asked why wouldn’t he allow his son to be a cricketer Raju replied “here is no scope of sports in our country the success rate is drastically low there are a few who succeed but what I am concerned about is the rest.”

Researchers have found out that the rigid selection criteria, lack of any form of job security and low service span are factors which demand a special attention from the government.

Rashid Ali, a former Olympic runner who drives an auto rickshaw these days said” I have little to no support from the government, all the ten years of my dedication to sports have gone in vain. I think I could have opted for studies and get a government job rather than being in my ripe old age and having nowhere to go now.”

The names can be different, but the stories remain to be the same. The sports industry seems to suffer from the rags to riches phenomenon and has various drawbacks, including the female and male gender roles which has narrowed the participation of women in male dominated sports like weightlifting, wrestling and boxing.

Lack of requisite funds available for sports equipments, infrastructure, essential services such as health care and provision of other necessary commodities has further debarred sports persons from unveiling their potential function.

Lack of participation of people in sports has become a major concern and needs to find its resolutions through the appropriate steps taken by the government.