With a view to encourage talent and developing skills in different sports, Miao, a sub-division in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district has come up with a novel initiative called “Free Sports Equipment Bank”.
This Bank allows any child or youth from Miao to borrow the sports equipment for free and return it after the game is over.
The bank was officially inaugurated this Republic Day, according to the Additional Deputy Commission (ADC) Sunny K Singh and received support from the local residents, sports enthusiasts and philanthropists of the region with many donating sporting goods. It is located at the old library in the ADC’s office.
Miao administration launches FREE SPORTS EQUIPMENT BANK to ensure RIGHT TO PLAY SPORTS OF ONE’S CHOICE for all children
Children/Youth may
1. Borrow the equipment
2. play the game of their choice
3. Return the equipment“PRIORITY LENDING TO UNDERPRIVILEGED ONES” pic.twitter.com/ymeYFOXYIk
— Sunny K Singh, IAS (@SunnySinghIAS) January 28, 2022
Talking to eastmojo.com, Singh informed: “Even the Indian Army helped us with Rs.50,000 for the initiative.”
Singh whose brainchild this initiative is said: “We observed that the children of Miao, who mainly come from economically weaker sections, were finding it difficult to pursue and play sports of their choice despite having the urge and keenness to play the same. One, among many other reasons stopping these kids from playing sports, was the cost of the equipment. This was compelling these talents to watch the games from across the fence rather than playing it themselves.”
At present the Bank has equipment for football, cricket, table tennis, badminton, basketball, volleyball, carom, chess and skating. The list will increase in future.
The response of the children to the Bank is very encouraging. “We can now see the children engaged in sports not only during the day but also at night. We have started to witness the potential of our kids and several already seem to be stars in the making,” Singh observed.
The Miao administration has started revamping sporting infrastructure of the sub-division. Besides starting a day and night futsal ground and parkour park, floodlights have been added in the existing cricket-cum-football ground.
Sharing more details Singh added: “We are also creating a 10 meter rifle/pistol shooting range while a skating rink-cum-adventure cycling unit is under construction and the same would be completed in the next 2 months.”
