Khelo India Scheme

The government launched the Khelo India scheme in 2018 to revive the sports culture in India at the grass-root level. It aims to revive the sports culture by building a solid framework for all sports played in India and establishing our country as a sporting nation. It is a national scheme for the development of sports.

It aims at mainstreaming sports as a tool for national, economic, community and individual development. The Union Cabinet approved the revamped ‘Khelo India’ program by consolidating the National Sports Talent Search System Programme, Urban Sports Infrastructure Scheme and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan (formerly called the Yuva Krida and Khel Abhiyan). The Khelo India scheme strives to promote ‘Sports for Excellence’ and ‘Sports for All’.

Objectives of the Khelo India Scheme

• Mass youth participation in annual sports competitions through a structured competition
• Identification of sports talent
• Nurturing and guidance of the talent through a new set or existing sports academies either by the Central Government, state government or in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
• Creation of sports infrastructure at district, mofussil, tehsil, state levels, etc

Verticals of the Khelo India Scheme

The Khelo India scheme has been divided into 12 verticals to achieve the objectives, which are as follows:

• Play field development
• Community coaching development
• Support to National, regional, state sports academics
• Physical fitness of school children
• Promotion of sports amongst people with disabilities
• Sports for women
• State-level Khelo India Centres
• Annual sports competition
• Sports for peace and development
• Talent search and development
• Utilisation and creation or upgradation of sports infrastructure
• Promotion of rural and indigenous or tribal games

Assistance Under Khelo India Scheme

Talented players identified under the Khelo India scheme in priority sports disciplines at different levels by the high-powered committee are provided annual financial assistance of Rs.5 lakh per annum for eight years.

Khelo India School Games 

The Khelo India School Games (KISG), a part of the Khelo India scheme, was held from 31 January to 8 February 2018 in New Delhi. Under-17 athletes were invited to participate across 16 disciplines: Archery, Badminton, Athletics, Basketball, Football,  Boxing, Gymnastics, Judo, Hockey, Kabaddi, Shooting, Kho-Kho, Volleyball, Swimming, Wrestling and Weightlifting.

Achievements of the Khelo India Scheme

• 133 new sports infrastructure projects were approved across 27 states/UT at a total sanctioned cost of Rs.826 crore.
• First Khelo India School Games (KISG) was conducted with the participation of 3,507 athletes.
• The second edition of the games, i.e. Khelo India Youth Games Maharashtra, 2019, was successfully conducted with the participation of 5,925 athletes.       
• 2,437 sporting talents across 20 sports disciplines are selected under the talent search and development vertical.
• A total of 99 academies (State government, Central Government and private) are accredited for training Khelo India Athletes (KIAs).
• Khelo India mobile application was launched to enable the general public to obtain information and ease of access to the different aspects of the game, available play fields across India or mapping the fitness parameters of the young school children.
• The first national-level Training of Trainer (TOTs) programme for the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) teachers was held and 198 physical education teachers trained are certified as master trainers. 
• A total of 30 regional or state-level TOTs have been conducted, where 1,547 certified regional trainers were trained.
• Under the ‘Physical fitness of school children’ component, 1,168 schools and 23,947 assessors are registered. 2,70,821 student profiles have been created for physical fitness assessment in the Khelo India Mobile App, out of which 92,583 assessments have been made.
• Support of Rs.3 crore was given to the Boxing Federation of India to conduct the AIBA Women’s Boxing Championship, 2018, held in New Delhi from 15-24 November 2018.
• 2,124 trainees are covered under 18 state-level Khelo India centres of the Sports Authority of India.
• Rs.23.5 crore was sanctioned for conducting sporting activities in 13 states during 2018-19 under the ‘Sports for peace and development’ vertical. 

The Khelo India India scheme encourages people to play sports and participate in sports. Sports are a significant component of the overall development of our nation. The Khelo India scheme strives to promote sports, especially amongst school children and revive the sports culture in India.