Evolution of School Sports Key to Revolutionising Indian Grassroots Sports Culture

There was a time when school sports in India were viewed as mere extracurricular activities, a way for students to unwind after their academic commitments. And participation in sports was informal, with limited resources and minimal emphasis on structured training. However, over the past decade, there has been a significant shift in how sports in schools are perceived. Registering an 11% yearly growth, India, now the world’s fifth-largest economy, boasts a sports industry valued at ₹15,766 crore—nearly four times what it was worth 10 years ago. 

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School Sports Ecosystem in India

Government initiatives like Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG), Khel Mahakumb, and Kerala School Olympics have played a key role in changing the way schools approach sports. These programs are exposing students to sports and shifting towards a more organised education system that aligns with sports.

Private organisations like Sports For All (SFA) have also been professionalising, organising and monetising grassroots sports to develop India into a country that believes in the value of and invests in the culture of sport. SFA even conducted the first SFA School Championship in 2015, much before the KIYG games, which were held in 2018.

Such events have picked up a lot of traction now as compared to their inception and the participation numbers and the number of sports conducted have since increased multifold.

KIYG started in 2018 with 3,500 athletes and that number has now increased to over 5,000 in 2024. Whereas SFA hosted its flagship School Championships in 2015 with 3,200 athletes and in a span of 9 years they are now providing a platform for 140,000 athletes across the country. 

How Technology enables the sports sector

In KIYG, technology is an enabler for talent mapping. SFA has partnered with KIYG to provide them with the technology that SFA has developed for and deployed at the SFA School Championships. 
SFA seamlessly integrates technology in its tournaments, providing young athletes and students with real-time performance analysis and personalised training feedback to take the next step in their development as an athlete.

From Grassroots to Glory

A robust grassroots system is essential to building a pipeline of professional athletes. Take the example of the United States, where structured sports programs consistently feed the national teams. Their habit of making participative sports a way of life ensures that young athletes are identified early and provided with pathways to elite competition.

In the 2024 Paris Olympics , India won six medals, with a significant contribution from the Khelo India scheme where nearly one-fifth of the national contingent came through the program.
While this is a promising start, the need of the hour is a mindset shift focused towards the goal of expanding the talent pool feeding into elite sports. Events like the KIYG serve to refine talent, but India’s sporting ecosystem needs to focus not just on polishing the few, but on creating the right environment for many more to thrive. 

Grassroots sports start at the school level and with the full implementation of the New Education Policy, we can anticipate an equal importance for sports and academics. SFA School Championships give school athletes who are at the first stage of their sporting journey the push required to start and eventually keep going towards a career in professional sports. 

We as a country, must now divert some of our focus from “watching the Olympics ” to creating a culture where participative grassroots sports are encouraged and accessible because only then will we have a lasting impact on the sporting world.