While millions of Indians rejoice the very few achievements of our fellow Indians in Hockey, Wrestling, Boxing, Badminton, Shooting, Weightlifting and other sporting disciplines at the Olympics or any other international event, it is a fact that Indians have much more potential in them which can only be uncovered with proper mapping of resources.
“India lives in villages” were the golden words of
Mahatma Gandhi many decades ago. Ironically after almost 50 years the data does not seem to disagree. Today a majority of the Indian population still live in the villages. Though there is substantial migration from rural to urban areas in India, still almost 68% of India continues to live in rural areas. The socio-economic census data (2011) released very recently said that almost 73% of the households were in rural areas. On the contrary, India’s vision today is highly urban centric. Cities are tipped to be the catalysts of growth in the future. It is noted that the agriculture and allied services contribution to the GDP of the nation has reduced considerably from 51.88% in 1950 to 13.94% in 2013. The World Bank data on value added by agriculture (% of GDP) data does not seem to disagree. From a 42.56 in 1960 it has dropped to a meagre 16.95 in 2014. Given that almost 70% of the population lives in rural areas and about 50% of the overall labour force is still dependant on agriculture, this situation is definitely not sustainable. Since India’s Independence, Urban & Rural difference has been one such major obstacle in growth. While the urban areas with all the amenities getting richer contributing more to India’s GDP, the rural areas who often depends on Agriculture due to the absence of the education, healthcare and other required amenities fall behind. On the other hand, the sportsperson with their origin from the rural belt have proved their mettle at multiple international events; from Mary Kom (Manipur) to Vijender Singh (Bhiwani); Yogeshwar Dutt (Sonipat) to Sakshi Malik (Rohtak); P.T Usha (Kozhikode) to Dutee Chand (Gopalpur, Odisha). Giving us scope for development and uncovering the true potential Indians have. Hence, Omkarnath Yadav (a senior boxing expert) and Kailashnath Yadav (a management professional) along with SM Arif (Former Chief National Badminton Coach, Padmashri & Dronacharya Awardee), Dharmendra Singh Yadav (Olympian, Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist and Arjuna Awardee), N. Brijkishore (Senior Gymnastics Coach & Member of National Coaches Panel).
