To make India a healthy and fit nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Fit India Movement on August 29,2019. Fit India has now become the people’s movement, with active participation of schools, colleges, institutions and people from all walks of life. In a path-breaking move, the Ministry made playfields and sporting infrastructure accessible to all sportspersons without fee. The year also witnessed India’s best ever performance in Archery World Championship, Commonwealth weightlifting and Table Tennis Championships, and South Asian Games.

Department of Sports under Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports undertook many initiatives during the year 2019 in order to infuse sporting culture and achieve sporting excellence in the country. Keeping in view the growing demands for advanced infrastructure, equipment and scientific support, Government of India has taken several measures and is providing the necessary assistance to sportspersons by way of training and exposure in international competitions backed up with scientific and equipment support:

1.Fit India Movement: Fit India Movement was launched by the Department of Sports on the occasion of National Sports Day i.e. August 29, 2019, with the objective to make fitness an integral part of daily life of Indians, by encouraging them to enrol and participate in Fitness Events/Activities organized during the Campaign Period commencing from August 29, 2019 and will end on August 29, 2023.

            Fit India Movement would involve all Indians, irrespective of their gender, age, profession, residence, social/financial status, etc. and whether living in India or abroad and covers all aspects having a bearing on fitness and healthy living viz., physical fitness, mental fitness, healthy life style, healthy eating habits, health and balance diet, preventive health care, sustainable and environment friendly living, etc.

2.         Initiatives/activities under Fit India Movement:

• On the occasion of the 150^th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi i.e. October 02, 2019, more than 1500 Fit India Plog Runs were organised across the country under Fit India Movement.
• Fit India School Week and Fit India Certificate System was launched in coordination with Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of School Education & Literacy.

3.Department of Sports during the meeting of National Sports Federations on October 11, 2019 decided to allow sports events in all sporting facilities owned by the Government free of cost in order to further the Fit India Movement and to make playfields and sporting infrastructure accessible without any fee to sportspersons across the country from November 01, 2019. The sporting facilities will also be accessible free of cost to non-government coaches training athletes.

4.         Khelo India Youth Games 2019:The Khelo India Youth Games 2019 were held from 9th to 20th January 2019 at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Mahalunge-Balewadi, Pune, with Maharashtra as the Host State. A total of 403 events were conducted across 18 sporting disciplines, with 379 individual events and 24 Team events. Maharashtra emerged the Overall Champions, followed by Haryana and Delhi. These Games had an overwhelming participation, comprising of more than 5925 athletes from all States/UTs, 1096 support staff, 893 Technical officials, 1021 Volunteers and 1500 officials from Central and State Governments. The KIYG Maharashtra 2019 was telecast live for 8 hours each day for 12 days on Star Sports & DD Sports. A Mass Athlete Awareness Programme against Doping in Sports was carried out by National Anti-Doping Agency during these Games, educating 3201 national level young athletes.  Moreover, 476 dope tests of the participating athletes were carried out. 

5.         National Conference on ‘Prevention of Doping in Sports’: A two-day National Conference on Anti-Doping was organized by Physical Education Foundation of India in association with National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on 30-31st January, 2019 at New Delhi. Various Speakers including the Union Sports Minister; Minister of State (Health); Shri Ashwani Kumar Choubey; Shri Manoj Tiwari, MP; Smt. Mary Kom, MP; DG, NADA gave valuable insights into the ways and means of preventing doping in sports.  The conference was attended by University and College coaches and sports enthusiasts from all over the country

6.      Web Ratna under Digital India Awards-2018 to the website of the Ministry:The website of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports won the Web Ratna (Silver) under Digital India Awards-2018. The awards are given in acknowledgement of exemplary initiatives taken by the Ministry in e-governance using the medium of World Wide Web.

7.       Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education (LNIPE):A 2-days National Conference on Physical Education & Sports Sciences was conducted by the Department of Physiology at LNIPE, Gwalior on 25^th& 26^th February, 2019. Prof D.K. Dureha, Vice-Chancellor of LNIPE, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of Physical Education & Sports Psychology at International Conference of Sports Psychology & Yogic Sciences, Nagpur on February 16-17, 2019.

8.        National Sports Awards 2019:  The President of India conferred National Sports Awards 2019 in a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29, 2019.  This year, 32 sportspersons and 5 entities were selected for National Sports Awards in different categories. MAULANA ABUL KALAM AZAD (MAKA) TROPHY, 2019 has been conferred on Punjab University, Chandigarh.

9          Annual Calendar for Training and Competitions (ACTC), which decides the training camps as well as the competition schedule for both the junior and senior teams in respect of the various sports disciplines at National Level, has been prepared for the current financial year on an online platform. The approved ACTC Calendar and Budget has been made available in public domain with a link on the website of Sports Authority of India.

10.      Rationalization of diet and food supplement charges:A decision has been taken to provide financial assistance towards diet, food supplements to all athletes whether Senior, Junior or Sub-Junior athletes. Earlier Senior, Junior athletes and SAI trainees had different diets which has been done away with to ensure parity amongst all level of trainees.

11.       Conference of the State Ministers and Secretaries of Youth Affairs & Sports was organized by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports on November 15, 2019 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, with a view to take concerted efforts in well-coordinated manner by both Centre as well as State/UT Governments for promotion and development of sports in the country.

12.    Achievements in different Games and Sports at National and International Levels:

1. India jointly topped the medal tally with Hungary in the ISSF World Cup (Rifle/Pistol) held at Zian (China), winning 03 Gold & 01 Silver medals. 
2. 28 Gold medals in Asian Youth Chess Championship held in Sri Lanka, 02 Gold medals in Asian Athletics Championship held at Doha (Qatar) and 02 Gold medals Asian Boxing Championship held at Bangkok (Thailand) in April, 2019 are other significant achievements.
3. India won one silver and two bronze medals at the Archery World Championship, held in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands from June 10 to 16, 2019, making it the best-ever medal haul in an Archery World Championship. With this performance, India also obtained a quota for archery in Tokyo Olympics, 2020.
4. India topped the medal tally at the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships, 2019 held in Apia, Samoa from July 9-14, 2019 in both Junior and Senior age groups by winning 35 medals (22 gold, 10 silver and 3 bronze medals), across the three age groups, with 32 different athletes (15 men and 17 women). This is India’s best ever performance in this tournament.
5. India grabbed all the gold medals (seven) in the 21st Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships held in Cuttack (India) in July, 2019.
6. In individual Sports Events, Hima Das won five gold medals within 20 days’ period in various International Athletics Events held in July, 2019. This is her best ever performance in 200m and 400m race.
7. Dutee Chand became the first Indian woman athlete to win a gold medal at the World Universiade in a 100m sprint event held in July, 2019.
8. Badminton World Championships, 2019:  P.V. Sindhu won gold medal at the BWF World Championships 2019 held from 19 to 25 August, 2019 at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.  She became the first-ever Indian badminton player to win a gold medal at this event. 
1. India bagged four quota in wrestling for Tokyo Olympic 2020 with strong performance of Indian wrestlers (one silver and 4 bronze medals) in recently concluded World Wrestling Championships 2019 held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan during September 14-22, 2019.
10. Special Olympics, 2019: Special Olympics, 2019 were held in Abu Dhabi (UAE) during March 14-21, 2019, wherein 284 Indian Athletes participated. Indian players won 368 medals including 85 Gold, 154 Silver and 129 Bronze. India stood at 3rd position in the tournament’s Medal Tally.
11. South Asian Games, 2019:The XIIISouth Asian Games, 2019, were hosted by Nepal and were played in Kathmandu and Pokhara from 1^st to 10^th December, 2019 among 7 participating nations.  India bagged first position, with 312 medals including 174 gold, 93 silver and 45 bronze.

13. India’s Olympic Preparation, Tokyo:

The Nation’s sporting preparations continues to be backed by two major Schemes of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), Govt. of India (GoI), implemented by Sports Authority of India (SAI), namely, Annual Calendar for Training and Competitions (ACTC) which caters to all the preparations including training and competition for Indian teams up to Sep 2020 for both Olympics and Para-Olympics 2020 and Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) which provides assistance to India’s top athletes in their pursuit of an Olympic medal. Under Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) 58 Core Probable have been identified and are being supported for 2020 Olympic Games and a further 18 for 2020 Paralympic Games.

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YKB/TFK