SHILLONG, JUN 16: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Tuesday that the state government’s push for sports stems from a larger vision of shaping Meghalaya’s youth, arguing that policy decisions cannot be “simply based on only one aspect of winning a medal.”
Addressing the Meghalaya Sports Conclave, the Chief Minister traced the government’s journey since 2018 to a period of restructuring and repositioning the state. “In 2018 when we started our journey with an objective to take our state forward, there were many challenges that there were there in front of us and while we look at those challenges and difficulties, we also realised that there are opportunities in those challenges,” he said.
Sangma said the administration identified “structural challenges and basic aspects of governance, capacity building, a vision, a direction, a goal” early on. “This entire journey of trying to really restructure and reposition ourselves and take us towards that goal and vision that we have which we envisions that it would be in the next 15 years time we will get there. This long journey started for us,” he stated.
He placed youth at the centre of the government’s agenda. “Out of the many challenges we saw and the opportunities that came out of those challenges, we realize that the youth of our state are at the centre and the heart of what we want to achieve and that’s how our journey for sports began,” the Chief Minister said. While acknowledging that “obviously, we all want medals, we wish to see that we win medals in games – that is the ultimate objective,” he added that “the larger perspective what is important is to be able to make sports a way of life and to ensure that sports help us shape the future and shape the overall character of every single youth of our state.”
Sangma linked the sports push to other youth-centric initiatives in music, creative arts and entrepreneurship. He cited the CM’s Meghalaya Grassroot programmes under which “7000 artists today are supported by the government to do busking, to perform in tourist locations, in restaurants, so they do what they love to do and they get paid for it.”
The government also moved to promote “fashion, whether it is music videos, documentaries, whether it is arts” and launched schemes like CM Elevate and PRIME because “ultimately it is not just the government jobs but it is also the different business opportunities where youth needs to be motivated to take risk, calculated risk to then convert those different gaps in the market into real opportunities and business ideas.”
On education, he admitted “we have huge challenges” but said the government is “slowly and steadily moving in the right direction where we will see the transformation in education which we feel has to be there.”
The Chief Minister stressed that with “18 lakh U-20 which means 50% of our population which is below the age of 20,” Meghalaya’s demographic reality demands long-term planning. “You will be surprise to know that Meghalaya is GenAlpha majority – so we have pyramid shape population structure where the maximum population is GenBeta and Gen Alpha and then comes GenZ. I am sorry GenZ you are a minority now in the state of Meghalaya,” he said.
“Therefore, it is even more important for us to create the institutional systems now so that we are able to then take care of those challenges when the time comes when this huge population suddenly that migrates to colleges and is looking for livelihood and different sports and opportunities that needs to be put up.”
On Meghalaya’s bid to host the National Games, Sangma called it a milestone in itself. “Today for a state like Meghalaya to even dream of hosting the National Games is in itself is an achievement for us because we have to take the dream and I keep telling everybody that we should never let this entire thought process and this mindset of our which is so critical for us. The National Games is just one event, it is part of the project that is being worked out and planned to move forward.”
Addressing the state’s past medal record, he said, “On why Meghalaya getting zero medals, he said there was no proper planning and no proper investments for past many years. We seeing change today. We are seeing this transformation and transition happening as we speak. I am not saying that we have reach closer to where we want to be, we are very far but I am telling you we are proceeding in that direction.”
He urged citizens to engage constructively with the government’s efforts: “I would like to hear constructive criticism, I would like to hear actionable points.”
Sports & Youth Affairs Minister Wailadmiki Shylla also addressed the conclave, which was attended by Olympians, sports industry specialists, senior bureaucrats and other distinguished dignitaries from across India.
By Our Reporter
