The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar Award seems to have spurred Sports Coaching Foundation founder-general secretary K. Sai Baba to extend his passion to promote sports amongst the less-privileged to new domains. He has decided to go in and around Hyderabad and promote the sporting culture, especially in schools where girls rarely get an opportunity to train, leave alone compete in the meets.
Sports meetThe Begum Sugra Humayun Mirza Mini Girls Olympiad organised last weekend was one such initiative as part of the ‘Build India Through Sports’ programme which saw about 500 to 600 girls from the Government and the aided schools between IV and 1Xth standard compete in a sports meet.
Winning or losing was not the focus in this which was essentially aimed to let these girls free from the shackles and venture on to the sports fields, showcase their skills as competitions were held in running, skipping, basketball, kho kho, kabaddi and karate.
“We are delighted with the kind of response for this meet. And we are planning to hold these kind of events for the less privileged with regularity. We are an NGO and we did this thanks to the support of LIC. We don’t look at monetary benefits. On the contrary, we spend from our own side,” said Sai Baba.
Former Chief Secretary to State Government Gopala Krishna, who gave away the prizes appreciated the efforts of SCF. “Sports in India need not be all about big achievers. Unless we give a platform for these age groups at the school level, how can we produce more champions,” he said.
For SCF, which is into its silver jubilee year, this is yet another significant milestone.
“We have requested many schools to make optimum use of our facilities. Hope, there will be good response,” signs off Sai Baba.
