When Swachh Bharat met Khelo India in Chhattisgarh’s Balrampur district
Sports teams are often known to make a clean sweep of scores, awards and their competition. District officials from Balrampur in Chhattisgarh have derived inspiration from this term to launch an initiative which combines cleanliness and sports, both activities which draw upon essential skills such as strength of character and team spirit.
The premise of the innovative programme called Khelega Balrampur, Badhega Balrampur (Balrampur will play, Balrampur will grow) is really simple. In order to be eligible to participate in the district level volleyball tournament, every registering team has to choose a polluted or dirty open area in their panchayat and clean it.
That then becomes the team’s home ground, and has to be maintained and used for practice throughout the year. The two teams that emerge at the top at the block level (there are a total of 12 teams from across six blocks in the district) are eligible to have their home ground completely revamped free of cost by the district administration, which will also help with things like land levelling. These two teams will also be provided with volleyball poles, nets, lighting and jerseys for players.
The teams will have to earn all this help from the administration with a thorough clean-up and maintenance job. Not only will this ensure health and sanitation in pockets of the villages, but also round-the-year quality games on these 12 grounds in the district. Imagine if this could be replicated all over India in other sports too? We would have thousands of new grounds and empower youth with a new mission in life!
When asked why they chose volleyball for this campaign, district authorities explained that the game has a legacy connection with rural Indian roots and has a ubiquitous presence even in far-flung panchayats in every district. Secondly, it is a low-cost game which makes it easy to promote and build upon as a sport. This initiative also has a social twist. The playing 6 from each team should always include a specially-abled person, who has been cleared to play medically and in terms of skills. This will ensure better inclusivity.
Kicking off the campaign, Balrampur District Collector Hira Lal Nayak and a few other district officials participated in a cleanliness drive. This to increased awareness about the tournament through newspapers, social media and word of mouth, and many teams reached out to the nodal officers for registration. A total of 75 teams have registered, which translates into 75 cleaner places, 75 specially-abled players and 75 grounds that will be available to practice throughout the year. This has already generated a huge amount of interest in the district.
