“Of the Young people, by the Young people, for the young people”

Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

India looks at the world as ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ which means “ World as one family”. The Youth Olympic Games brings a tremendous opportunity to bring people together and contribute to the Olympic Movement’s vision of “Building a better world through sport”.

Strength

To increase the youth participation through sport, the Indian Government came up with some great tournaments and campaigns which are described below

India’s current policies

Khelo India Youth Games

As Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi highlighted "Sports is an important means of personality development and Khelo India is not a programme, it's a mission. The Games will highlight India's young sporting talent and showcase India's sports potential,"

"Khelo India is not only about winning medals. It is an effort to give strength to a mass movement for playing more. We want to focus on every aspect that would make sports more popular across the nation," he added.

'5MinuteAur' challenge which is also a part of the Khelo India movement is also a campaign to promote a better health for everyone.

Each sport in the nine-day event Khelo India Youth Games has been assigned a talent-hunt committee. The job of the committee is to look for two top sportspersons who will each be entitled to a Rs 5-lakh annual scholarship for eight years.

FIT India movement

 On 29 August 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Fit India Movement on the occasion of National sports day at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium in New Delhi .Prime Minister Modi urged the youth to take up to sports actively as it is an important tool for the development of the nation.

This movement is dedicated to promoting a fitter and healthier India where everybody is encouraged to atleast dedicate sometime of their busy schedule to do physical activity.

Weakness (Challenges)

One of the biggest weakness India has is lack of infrastructure. The communities and young people don’t have safe access to the current infrastructure. It is very important to create safe play spaces for young people where they can play without getting injured and through proper monitoring.

One of the biggest challenges is to change the mindset of parents to involve young people into physical activity. It is important to engage key stakeholders like Parents, community members, teachers and school principals.  

The weaknesses and challenges also lead to opportunities as described below.

Opportunities

The Youth Olympic Games has a reputation of an innovative event creating a greater legacy for young people and provides an excellent opportunity to create a sustainable legacy for the young people of India.

“Olympic legacy is the result of a vision. It encompasses all the tangible and intangible long-term benefits initiated or accelerated by the hosting of the Olympic Games/sport events for people, cities/territories and the Olympic Movement.”

For example, Lausanne created a Transport Legacy along with with the “two-wave” concept used for the first time at an Olympic event, meaning that athletes who compete in the first week of competition are on site for only seven days, while those who are competing in the latter stages of the YOG arrive later and take over the rooms of the departing athletes.

Sustainable Development Goals

The Youth Olympic Games if it is hosted in India in 2026, This massively help India in achieving its SDG targets specifically

·        SDG 3- Good Health and Well Being

·        SDG 4- Quality Education

·        SDG 5- Gender Equality

·        SDG 8- Decent work and economic growth

·        SDG 11- Sustainable cities and communities

·        SDG 12- Responsible Consumption and Production

·        SDG 13- Climate Action

·        SDG 14- Life Below Water

·        SDG 15- Life on Land

·        SDG 16- Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

·        SDG 17- Partnerships for Goals

Sustainability(Eco Tourism)

Under the Paris Agreement, India has made three commitments. India’s greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP will be reduced by 33-35% below 2005 levels by 2030. Alongside, 40% of India’s power capacity would be based on non-fossil fuel sources. At the same time, India will create an additional ‘carbon sink’ of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of Co2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. The Second Biennial Update Report that India is well on way to achieve the target for emission intensity of the economy and share of non-fossil fuel-based power capacity. The report also looks at the second target – turning 40% of the power capacity in the country to non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. By March 2018, the report notes, citing Central Electricity Authority India had ensured 35% of its capacity is based on non-fossil fuel base such as renewables, hydroelectricity and nuclear. Another 17-23 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity addition could take India to the target well before 2030.

 It will be in India’s interest to create Green Zones, develop public transport and investment in Electric vehicles which will be India’s greatest legacy through Youth Olympic Games for its young people and their future.

Fit India

The Fit India campaign will get a major boost through the Youth Olympic Games. It is important to design activities around young people in school and colleges to enhance their participation. One of the major goals is also to inspire and increase participation of young people in physical activity.

Workshops to create more dialogue

Through Mixed NOC events, The Youth Olympic Games break down barriers and bring athletes from different countries together to foster a greater sense of camaraderie and community.

These events has been a key part of every YOG of showcasing unity in diversity.For example: India’s Chaudhary Saurabh Chaudhary and Pakistan’s Nubaira Babur were paired up in the 10-metre air pistol mixed-NOC team event.

Events like these provide an excellent opportunity to create a dialogue among young people from different countries. To promote cultural heritage and bring young people together from different countries on one single platform.

Youth learning experience

The education programme uses a variety of fun and interactive activities, workshops and team-building exercises to give the participating athletes the opportunity to learn about the Olympic values, explore other cultures, develop the skills to become true ambassadors of their sport and improve their training methods and performance.

The Youth Olympic Games provide a great platform for youth experience and also inspire Non-athlete participants like Young Reporters, YOG Ambassadors, and Athlete Role Models, which are also an integral part of the YOG experience.  (1)

Para diplomacy

An opportunity for the host city and state to showcase its cultural heritage to the world..  The event would provide an opportunity for the host city and state where the City and the state can learn from the previous hosts and build a relationship with them. This will help directly impact people of the city along with developing a lasting dialogue between communities and people across border.

The host city will also get opportunity to attract investment, trade opportunities, infrastructure development, Technology enhancement, and create a forum for more dialogue.

Trade, Tourism and Investment

Events like Youth Olympic Games provide an excellent opportunity to improve economic and bilateral relations. This set ups a great platform for cross sectoral collaboration where Sport Management Companies, Sports Management Institutes, High performance institutes, IT Companies can come together.

This also creates a platform to create new business networks and provide targeted commercial opportunities for internal and foreign engagement during the games.

For example:

Among all the tents at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Village there is one sparking particular interest among athletes and their coaches: The Performance Accelerator. The igloo-style booth is a first-time partnership between the University of Lausanne, the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP) in Paris, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).Researchers test athletes’ bodies in various ways to produce a detailed physical analysis, and assess how they might improve performance. (2)

The cauldron, medal trays and podiums were built in partnership between three schools, having been designed by students of the Lausanne art school (ECAL), and built by apprentices of the EDC Construction School and C-FOR (Lausanne Utilities Training Centre). This has been a great legacy initiative, as the skills learned during the process will allow the students to contribute to similar projects in the Canton.(3)

Threat

One of the biggest threat of hosting the event is India’s foreign policy in recognizing nation like Kosovo. Donjeta Sadiku, a Kosovan boxer was denied visa by the Government of India. Who was supposed to participate in the Women’s World Championships in New Delhi. India does not recognize Kosovo as an independent nation despite its declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008. (4)

India’s ongoing turbulent relationship with Pakistan meant it denied entry visas for two shooters who were due to take part in a World Cup event in the Indian capital  just after the attack by a Pakistan-based militant group in Kashmir, which killed at least 40 CRPF personnel.(5)

As per the Olympic Charter, it is the duty of the organising committee to provide entry to every eligible athlete participating in a major championship without discrimination.

The Government of India has recently given an undertaking to International Olympic Committee that it will allow athletes and officials from visiting nations to participate in India “without any prejudice to our principled positions and policies on other political matters” (6) . This is a positive signal and paves way for India to host multi nation events in future.  

Final remarks

The UNDP defines Sustainable Human Development as “ The process of enlarging people’s choices by expanding their capabilities and opportunities in ways that are sustainable from the economic, social and environmental standpoints, benefiting the present without compromising the future. The Youth Olympic Games provides an opportunity to develop India's Sustainable Human Development especially the youth

The major part of the legacy of the Youth Olympic Games in India would be providing sustainable choices to young people by providing them opportunities, infrastructure, sustainable cities, and quality education. The young people become ambassadors and get to explore other cultures thereby preparing them for the future.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi famously said "When we say India has to grow on the world stage, it does not only mean having a strong army & powerful economy. It includes people of India distinguishing themselves as scientists, artists, sportspersons. And, I am confident India will scale these heights. I trust our youth,"