Ladakh lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena approved a landmark new sports policy for Ladakh.
The new sports policy provides for assured financial support in terms of cash incentive and monthly scholarship, recognition and constant motivation to sportspersons to excel at school, district, state, national and international levels.
The sports policy establishes a visionary framework designed to transform the union territory into a premier, self-sustaining sporting destination, while simultaneously encouraging youth to take up sports as a viable career option.
Based on the guiding principles of “Scout, Facilitate and Recognise”, the policy has been finalised following threadbare discussions with all stakeholders for over two months, under the guidance and leadership of the LG. In the recent months, several sportspersons and their parents had met the LG, putting forth their inability to meet the expenses for further preparations and training due to financial constraints.
Considering this requirement, the LG, emphasising that “institutional financial support to sportspersons was critical for their career progression”, directed the UT administration to formulate a comprehensive sports policy where medal winners start earning automatically.
The biggest highlight of the policy is the introduction of a comprehensive framework for financial support to outstanding sportspersons from Ladakh. Medal winners in recognised international, national and state-level competitions, including the National School Games and Khelo India Games, will receive monthly scholarships for 12 months, from the date of winning the medal. This scholarship would motivate and enable the sportspersons to compete for higher level sporting events, without worrying for expenses on nutritious diet or sports equipment.
{{/usCountry}}The biggest highlight of the policy is the introduction of a comprehensive framework for financial support to outstanding sportspersons from Ladakh. Medal winners in recognised international, national and state-level competitions, including the National School Games and Khelo India Games, will receive monthly scholarships for 12 months, from the date of winning the medal. This scholarship would motivate and enable the sportspersons to compete for higher level sporting events, without worrying for expenses on nutritious diet or sports equipment.
{{/usCountry}}Under this new framework, international gold medalists will receive ₹1lakh per month, national gold medalists ₹75,000 per month, and state-level gold medalists ₹10,000 per month, with proportionate scholarships for silver and bronze medal winners too, in respective sporting events for a period of 12 months.
The policy ensures that as the beneficiary athletes progress to higher levels, their scholarship is correspondingly upgraded.