Report of the Working Group on Sports and Physical Education For 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012)

Abstract

Sports and Games as a vital component of social and cultural life are embedded in the Indian heritage, and can be found in the archaeological excavations of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, the Vedic literature, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the Puranas, the literary works of Kautilya, Kalidasa, Panini and Dandin, as well as in Buddhist and Jain literature. They had been seen as an intrinsic component of education and development of the human personality in the philosophical texts of ancient Greece, the progenitor of the Olympic movement. Every civilization has evolved and developed its own indigenous modes of physical endeavour and healthy social interaction through a variety of games and sports forms and events. Apart from being a means of physical exercise and fitness, sports and games have been a medium of entertainment, the generation of a spirit of healthy competition, bonding and pride in the community, and an avenue of constructive preoccupation for active young people.