New Delhi: Mission XI Million, the biggest school sport outreach programme, was launched here today by the Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs and Sports Mr Vijay Goel in the presence of President of AIFF Shri Praful Patel. A first of its kind, the programme will encourage children to play the beautiful game of football, gain healthy habits and learn important life lessons in teamwork and sportsman spirit.
The approach of Mission XI Million is to work with school principals and sports teachers and encourage and incentivize them to make children play football games on regular basis. Mission XI Million is a massive school engagement programme for football. Designed with international sporting expertise, but keeping in mind the ground realities of our huge and varied country, it aims to instill the passion for football in 11 million children from every part of the country.
Mr Vijay Goel said, over the past year, the government has taken a number of initiatives for developing a sporting culture in the country. He said projects like Khelo India are helping towards developing sport at the ground level while our TOPS scheme and Olympic Task forces look to help our elite athletes bring glory to India in the international arena. “With the FIFA U-17 World Cup being held in India in October this year, we are building our infrastructure and showcasing our ability to organize and execute global sporting events,” the minister added.
The minister said, but it is not just the stadiums and grounds that need to be built. “In his ‘Mann Ki Baat address on March 27th, our Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi described the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 as a great opportunity for youth that can start a revolution in sports throughout our country. In his words, this whole year there should be an atmosphere of football in the schools and colleges and around our country. The Mission XI Million programme that we are launching today was inspired by this vision,” Mr Goel added.
The Minister informed that the program will be rolled out in every state of the country, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari from Kutch to Imphal. The initial activity has already started, and he is extremely encouraged by the response government is getting from the schools and children.
The mission aim to reach out to over 37 cities and 12,000 schools across all 29 states of India, the initiative will focus on games that can be adapted to different field sizes and conditions, with special emphasis in small sided games (4 vs. 4 and 5 vs. 5). It is divided into three phases: seminars for teacher and educators, in-school activities and football festivals, which will run up to September 2017.
