What is the need of sports competition in school? Discuss in detail.

1.5 — Long Answer Questions

Q. What is the need of sports competition in school? Discuss in detail.

Puducherry TnboardTextbookLongImportance★★★★★est

96% · 91/95 Questions

✓ Free question

Concept understanding — Khelo India Programme Focus

Khelo India Programme — What It Is and Why It Exists

Imagine you are a talented young athlete — maybe a fast runner, a good swimmer, or a skilled wrestler. You have the raw ability, but you live in a small town with no proper coach, no equipment, and no competition to test yourself against. What happens? Your talent fades away, unused.

That is the problem the Khelo India Programme was created to solve. Launched in 2018 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, it is a national-level initiative to identify, nurture, and support young sporting talent across India — from the grassroots all the way to the podium.

The core idea is simple: talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Khelo India tries to bridge that gap.

The Precise Statement

Important

The Khelo India Programme is a centrally sponsored scheme that aims to revive the sports culture in India at the grassroots level, build a strong framework for sports development, and establish India as a sporting powerhouse — by identifying talented athletes in the age group of 6–18 years and providing them with financial support, coaching, equipment, and competition exposure.

It is not just about giving money. It is about creating an ecosystem — schools, academies, competitions, coaches, and infrastructure — so that a child with potential does not have to leave the sport because of lack of resources.

Key Components (What the Programme Actually Does)

Component	What It Means
Khelo India Youth Games	Annual national-level competitions for school and college athletes — the biggest multi-sport event in the country for young talent.
Khelo India Centres	Existing sports facilities (schools, stadiums, academies) upgraded and funded to become hubs for training.
Talent Identification	A systematic process to scout athletes through competitions, school-level assessments, and state-level trials.
Financial Support	Selected athletes get an annual scholarship of ₹1.5 lakh per year for 8 years — covering coaching, equipment, diet, and travel.
Infrastructure Development	Building and upgrading playgrounds, gyms, and training facilities in rural and urban areas.
Coach Training	Training and certifying coaches to ensure quality guidance at the grassroots.

How It Works in Practice

A 14-year-old girl from a village in Haryana shows exceptional speed in a district-level race. Under Khelo India, she is identified, enrolled in a nearby Khelo India Centre, given a scholarship, and provided with a coach, proper running shoes, and a diet plan. She competes in the Khelo India Youth Games, gets noticed by national selectors, and eventually trains for the Olympics.

That is the pipeline the programme builds — from the playground to the podium.

Note

The programme is not a one-time grant. It is a long-term commitment — the scholarship lasts up to 8 years, and the athlete is continuously monitored and supported.

Why It Matters for Exams

For any Indian competitive exam (UPSC, SSC, State PCS, or even school-level GK), you need to remember:

Launched: 2018
Ministry: Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
Target age group: 6–18 years
Key event: Khelo India Youth Games (first held in 2019)
Scholarship amount: ₹1.5 lakh per year for 8 years
Core objective: Grassroots sports development and talent identification

Tip

A common exam question asks: "Which scheme provides financial assistance of ₹1.5 lakh per year to young athletes?" — the answer is Khelo India Programme.

The Bigger Picture

Khelo India is not just a sports scheme. It is a recognition that India's demographic dividend — our huge young population — can be turned into a sporting advantage only if we invest early. It shifts the focus from "winning medals at any cost" to "building a system that produces champions naturally".

That is the concept. Start from the intuition — talent wasted without support — and the precise statement follows naturally.

School competition is where this chapter's PE objectives (fitness, emotional stability, social development, character) get genuinely tested, and it is also the first rung of the national talent pipeline Khelo India funds.

Testing PE's own objectives. The chapter's sixteen PE objectives - Emotional Development ("competitions ... are marked by success and failure"), Social Development (cooperation, fair play, sportsmanship through "ample opportunities for social contact"), and Optimum Sports Performance - cannot really be developed without actual competition; practising a skill in isolation never creates the pressure that builds emotional stability or sportsmanship the way a real contest does.

Mass participation philosophy. Khelo India's own philosophy is that sport is "not just about winning medals" but a mass movement supporting youth participation - school competitions are the most accessible, lowest-cost venue for exactly this kind of mass participation, reaching students who will never play at a district or state level.

The start of the talent pipeline. Khelo India's own Annual Sports Competitions vertical names the Khelo India National School Games as the "basic platform to showcase sporting skills" and "talent spotting," and its Talent Identification and Development vertical selects players "from various levels of participation" - school-level competition is the first and widest level that pipeline draws from.

✓Final answer

School sports competition is needed because it is the only setting where PE's fitness, emotional, social and character-building objectives are genuinely tested under real pressure, and because it is the first, widest rung of the national talent-identification pathway that schemes like Khelo India's School Games and Talent Identification vertical build on.

←Previous questionQ4 — What is the plan of government under the vertical of 'Promotion of Spo…→Next questionQ2 — Will the increase in professional sports leagues bring any transformat…

Q.What is the need of sports competition in school? Discuss in detail.

🎓Unlock everything free for 14 days

Unlock everything free for 14 days