Are we giving our children enough ‘space’ to play and grow?

A reflective on the importance of sports, both in mindspace and providing open space, for the physical well-being and community development.

“A trophy carries dust. Memories last forever.” - Mary Lou Retton, Olympic gymnast and gold medallist.

Anecdotally, while thinking about the benefits of sports, even before the advent of management jargons, I remember a time as a student when we used to play “just for fun”.

Without the intervention of analytics, physiological and psychological tools and methodologies, we simply played and kept getting better at it. And what was the training schedule like? Just playing every day amongst ourselves, competing with opposing teams and getting the bragging rights for every victory. For every defeat, it was all about going out the next day and giving our best to reclaim the glory.

Life was simple. We played hard, played for fun and looked forward to going back on the ground the next day!

The sheer joy of the entire community and its children across ages looking forward to descending on the grounds at an ‘unsaid’ yet pre-designated time, playing hard till parents came to look for us, creating memories and stories was all worth the sweat, toil, tears, fights, camaraderie and hard work.

While not trying to be overtly nostalgic for the generation born in the late 70’s, 80’s and the 90’s, I feel we were blessed to see true generational shifts.

For a country like India, where TV was a luxury in the early 80’s, Maruti revolutionising and spoiling the country with a few choices of colours for vehicles, the abundance of wide-open spaces and fields, we truly have come a long way. But every development has its positives and negatives.

With the internet, while things like connectivity and globalisation took a new meaning, it also kept shifting the needs of people.

From the days of relaxed viewing with prime time being defined by Ramayana, Mahabharata, Chitrahaar, to the cable television with its choice of channels, we have moved on to digitisation. The lean-forward, swipe-up viewing, lesser retention span, content creator and influencer network with social media being the new norm for teenagers and children of today, even Facebook has started feeling old.

The questions that need to be asked– Are our children playing enough sports physically? Is our community playing sports or promoting the culture??

Before attempting to answer these questions, let me put some perspective to things.

• According to market reports, the real-estate industry in India market size (*) is estimated at USD0.33 trillion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD1.04 trillion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 25.6% during the forecast period (2024-2029). Post-Covid, while the real estate industry is back on track to create residential and commercial spaces to service the burgeoning needs of upwardly mobile Indians, this is slowly seeing a decline in open spaces, fields and grounds in urban and semi-urban areas. While we continue to participate in this growth, it has taken a toll on our children. The ease and safety at which we could find open areas have reduced significantly. These are trade-offs which we will have to live with and accept. However, with the deteriorating AQI, increased traffic, and growing security concerns, we must decide – should we send our children outdoors to play or make them stay indoors glued to the screens? I would still choose to send my child out to run and play on ground as that has no substitute.
• In 2024, the revenue in the Smartphones market in India is estimated (*) to be US$44.6bn. It is projected to have an?annual growth rate of 7.25% from 2024 to 2028?(CAGR 2024-2028). Today, smartphones are turning into a necessity and the costlier it is, the higher is the status symbol within the friend circle. Computing speed determines who will be the winner of a first-person online shooter as the difference between life and death is of a nano second decided by the hardware and software used. Between this turmoil and pressure of virtual races and games, our children are missing out on the simple joys of scoring a fantastic goal or getting a hat-trick. Immortality, stories, legends are being created alone sitting in a room in front of a screen with the achievements being uploaded and lauded by anonymous users. The pleasure of meeting friends and discussing how one single handedly won a match for the team, or simply getting stuck with a nickname due to a blooper made during the game, seem like tales of the yore.
• In 2022, 48.7 percent of India’s population had access to the internet. The digital population across India comprises social media users and internet users. In the same year, the number of active 4G data subscribers was approximately 773 million with 730 million of unique 4G capable devices. 5G subscriptions in the country was projected to be 130 million in 2023 and grow to 860 million by 2029, representing 68 percent of total mobile subscribers by then. While telecom conglomerates are working hard to lay the infrastructure for market penetration and bring the country at par with the developed nations and easily overtake them through India’s sheer population and market size, the early adopters, who are the digital-generation children of today, are getting access to high-speed cheap internet backed with competent and capable smartphone devices. This is slowly but steadily reducing the time spent on physical activities and sports. Here, the important currency is time, which is finite, thus the question arises – “After school and chores, the limited time that a student has, does the child use it to relax by again physical exertions or just spend it on a sofa watching a screen with content available in abundance?” This Catch-22 situation will continue to arise and worsen over time, it is up to us to adopt the virtues of technology while trying to maintain the balance between physical and digital. In such a scenario, being “Phygital” like we see in retail businesses is truly the way forward.
• Egaming and Esports are the new realities of today. With Esports being recognised by the IOC and global events like The Olympic Esports Series – a global virtual and simulated sports competition, and the first-ever Olympic Esports week, 22 – 25 June 2023 in Singapore was streamed live. With Esports world cups, this is being considered as serious career options by gamers. Gone are the days of Contra and Mario where the simple joys and rewards were to rescue the princess from the dragon. With the prize monies ranging in millions, this is a serious business. Gamers have millions of followers; we watch them play live or endorse products and brands. Casual weekend gaming with limited screen time has been replaced with strategic virtual huddles, likes, chats, comments and gamification. Users are acquired with these gamification techniques, thereby reducing the customer acquisition costs of brands. It isn’t about right or wrong, black or white, these are indeed the new ways of life, and we need to decide the balance.
• The biggest dilemma for me is – should I go to play a game of Table Tennis with my friends physically? The entire cycle of getting up, connecting with friends, getting them to participate, getting ready and then actually participating may read like a Herculean task, but, throughout my life, this has been the modus operandi without even blinking twice. However, things have changed with the Metaverse. The questions are tougher, choices are complicated - do I go out with my friends to play and sweat it out or do I just let my Avatar do all of that in the virtual world? The second choice is easier. Metaverses are a great place of making impossible tasks easy and attainable. If I want to take the tour of the “Great Wall of China” or go view a match or visit the dressing room of my favourite team virtually, it enables me to do it instantly from the comfort of my house sans the travel costs and approvals. But taking it to the extent where we become completely disconnected with reality is where the balance steps in. Children should be encouraged to go out and socialise, improve interpersonal skills, play and compete to keep the mind and body fit.
• Lastly, we need to answer the question of why despite having the largest and youngest population, as a sporting nation we are not as successful. “Successful” here is subjective and probably can be explained with the help of some statistics. While we continue to dominate the world of cricket amongst the 12 full members and the 92 associate members, we sadly lag in results in other sports. Olympics is one of the most viewed sports. However, in Tokyo Olympics 2020, India ranked 48th with a solitary gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze medals. Indian women’s football team is ranked 65 and men’s team at 117. While the corporates and federations are trying their level best to improve the sports infrastructure, start leagues and new IPs, a lot is yet to be achieved. India’s sports budget for FY23-24 grew by 11% to INR 3,397.32 crore, out of which INR 1,000 crore was set aside for the Khelo India project. Two new SAI (Sports Authority of India) regional centres are planned for FY22-25 period. As a part of CSR responsibilities, private and large PSUs are also doing their best in the support and development of sports. All these efforts are commendable, but it still desires a lot more. Participation is the key to success for any sporting nation coupled with infrastructure, youth and grassroot and talent identification programs, policy interventions and good governance. We continue to read stories of lack of basic infrastructure and support but are also happy to read heartening stories or see improvement in performances in sports away from cricket. Indian shuttlers, tennis players, table tennis players, athletes, shooters, boxers, wrestlers, chess prodigies, hockey players, weightlifters and many others are all shining for the country at the international stage. The reason why I mention all these sports and many more is sadly most do not follow or know the names of these athletes who are making the country proud. The acceptance of all sporting disciplines, giving equal weightage and importance to each sport, turning up to watch and support all of them is the only way for these sports to grow. In the same vein, our children and the community at large should indulge and participate in all sports thereby helping the country discover talent and succeed.

In conclusion, while the relevance of sports in community and students continue to be important and age-old, but we need to re-inculcate these principles in spirit and on-ground. We need to adapt-adopt and adept to the new wave of digitisation, grow with new businesses and times, globalise, gamify, but we should all introspect and push our children and community to participate and play more sports. Though the government and corporates will continue to play their part, the ultimate power to make anything efficient and successful lies with us.

Nothing can substitute the joys of engaging in sports, the banter and creating life-long memories along with the proverbial benefits of developing better life skills, discipline and time management, develop better values and social relationships. You never know, the next champion might just be your next-door neighbour waiting to play and get discovered.

Author: Indrnil Choudhury

Data Source: Google