The youngsters of J&K are also skilful and capable, and the same has been depicted by their performance at various levels. Our athletes have brought laurels to the nation by proving their mettle and making it quite clear to the world that they can do wonders if provided with the opportunities and much-needed infrastructure which could push them further. We have had girls representing the country at different levels and that too by having limited and minimum resources to rely on and make use of. Imagine what will happen if they will get the state-of-art infrastructure to shape and fine-tune their skills. We have had a girl from north Kashmir playing basketball and with limited resources which were available to her, she has been able to make her name—and now she is a part of the Indian Basketball Team.
There is no dearth of talent in J&K, but it all comes down to one single thing and that is that the youngsters who want to pursue sports as their career should get the necessary facilities; there is a need to find them, hone their skills by providing them with the world-class facilities and infrastructure and then showing them that they could prosper in every aspect if they could hang on. Youngsters in J&K, particularly, Kashmir, have a keen interest in sports, but to invigorate their enthusiasm and draw them towards it, there is a need for overall development and upgradation of existing sports infrastructure in J&K.
There is no doubt that the administration has been making efforts in this direction and has also come up with a sports policy, but there is a need for stepping up the efforts and going with the implementation of a comprehensive strategy aimed at bringing an overall change in the sports landscape in the Union Territory. The schools, especially the Government-run schools, need to become a hub of sports activities aimed at developing the interest of the students at the early stage in the various sporting fields because there has always been a lack of such activities at the school level which keep the youngsters away from exploring what the field has to offer. The Government schools need to take a lead in this regard. After all, we cannot have just a few private and high-class missionary schools have all the fun; the Government schools could very well be filled with gems gathering dust. Better have it equally for everyone!
