Involve children in sports, or else they will be engaged on screen: Supreme Court

Involve children in sports, or else they will be engaged on screen: Supreme Court
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Centre and states to a petition that asked to make sports or physical literacy a fundamental right under the Constitution, observing that involving children in sports will be useful as otherwise, they will end up spending more time with gadgets.

Dealing with a petition filed by Kanishka Pandey in 2018 to make sports a fundamental right under Article 21A, a bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai said, “Children involved in sports will be something very useful, otherwise they will end up spending time on screen (gadgets).”

The top court, which appointed senior advocate Gopal Shankarnaraynan as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in 2019 to examine the issue, felt that one suggestion, in particular, requiring sports facilities in schools to be opened after school hours for neighbourhood children to play sports, should be explored.

The bench rued that sports is not seen as a career by many students who perform well in sporting events in school. “Many students do well till class 12 and after that they forget about it.” The court took the example of cricketer VVS Laxman whose parents were doctors, yet he chose cricket as his career.

“Very few people would make that choice. We need more and more such people to emerge,” added the bench, while directing the Centre and states to respond to the interim suggestions made by the amicus curiae.

Last month, Shankarnaraynan submitted a report to the court suggesting that sports is a narrow term, and instead “physical literacy” should be made a fundamental right in the country. To this end, he suggested that Centre should formulate a national physical literacy mission (NPLM), provide curriculum, devise digital resources for training teachers and instructors, and all education boards should ensure that 90 minutes during each school day is dedicated to sports and games.

Shankarnaraynan reasoned that all school education boards be directed to ensure that from the next academic year, “at least 90 minutes of every school day will be dedicated to free play and games and all non-residential colleges and schools shall compulsorily allow access during non-working hours to neighbourhood children to use their playgrounds and sports facilities for free, subject to basic norms of identification, security and care.”

The recommendations also required all registered and unregistered private and public education institutions that host students for more than 10 hours per week to have a physical literacy policy that should acknowledge the institution’s legal commitment to integrate physical literacy in all aspects of its curriculum. It also talked about the need for a dashboard with real time data mapping of available playgrounds and open spaces and their utilization rates, availability and qualifications of PE teachers, curricula, timetables, and equipment in educational institutions across the country.

The petitioner was represented by senior advocate Vikas Singh who said, “In India, unfortunately, sports is not seen as a career.” The state of Andhra Pradesh submitted to the court that it has a physical literacy policy with emphasis on every taluk to have a sports stadium.

The bench noted that Andhra Pradesh has successfully produced badminton players and similar has been the trend of wrestlers from Haryana. Additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj appearing for Centre said, “The Centre is all in support for sports.” The bench, however, pointed out, that the suggestions given by amicus will have “far reaching consequences” and said that a final order can be passed only after ascertaining views of the various governments.

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