Education and Sports in India: A tale of two step-brothers highlighted by Aamir Khan's 'Satyamev Jayate'

Finally, I found a Sunday where I was not working and had the best opportunity to catch-up on the inaugural episode of Aamir Khan’s thought provoking show ‘Satyamev Jayate.’ What made my morning further was the fact that the issue was the subject that I love to live, breath, eat, drink and even watch – sports. 

It was clearly evident from the many cases presented during the episode as to what sort of an impact can sports have on the life of an individual. Unfortunately, the case between formal education and sports in India is like step-brothers: they are never on the same page. More often it ism formal education that emerges as the winner in a battle between the two. As a result, the sportsman inside many young talents is killed even before it is born.

India’s education system is such that it places unprecedented importance to grades obtained in high school, graduation or post-graduation. Unless a child doesn’t want to become a cricketer, the parents are not willing to invest their time and money to allow their children grow in other sports. To be fair to them, no other sport apart from cricket allows that much financial security for the future as well. 

This huge divide between cricket and other sports is evident from the fact that our cricket team is rewarded with heaps of money even if they win a tri-series on foreign tours. However, reward announcements for any of our 11 gold medal winners at the recently concluded Asian Games in Incheon have been few and far between. 

In spite of us being the second most populous country after China (we are not far behind) we celebrate 11 gold medals in Asian Games as though we have conquered the world. On the other hand, China wins a total of 177 gold medals and vows to improve the tally in the next edition of the games. The episode clearly highlighted the stark difference between sports in India and China.

Keeping the shooting, boxing and other regular sports aside, there were events in the Asian Games which were never even heard off – Sepak takraw, Kaykaying, Canoeing which had Indian participation. Unless the administration backs such sports and promotes it amongst grassroots, they can only remain as participants and chances of medals will never arise in these disciplines.

The episode had a guest saying, “Today it is all about finding a champion. So not everyone gets a chance to try their hands at a sport.” I somehow agree with his statement. While we all want the next Sachin, the next Dhoni or the next Baichung Bhutia, no one really pays attention to whether everyone at least gets a chance to play. The greatest discoveries always happen by accident, so why not give everyone a chance. I don’t see any reason why we cannot win medals like China does in any international sporting event. 

This system indeed needs a drastic overhaul. Though lines spoken by Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots look good on screen, implementing them into our system is not impossible. If only our administration could have looked above their pockets to bring about this overhaul!