Yoga will soon be made compulsory for school students in Uttar Pradesh.

The policy, which is expected to be released soon, aims at cultivating a strong sporting culture, developing sports infrastructure, and promoting sportspersons, even in the most remote parts of the state.

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Additional chief secretary (sports) Navneet Sehgal said, “The aim of the policy is to increase participation of young children by identifying talent in the age group of 5 to 14 years and strengthening of the sports ecosystem through a public-private partnership, public association partnership, and public federation partnership.”

He said that the Centre has given consent to develop Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for three sports. Courses in sports management, sports journalism, sports law, and sports data analytics, among others, will be conducted for the youth.

High-performance centres will support the development of the 20 best athletes from each sport for national and state-level competitions.

Sehgal further said that each district will have one District Sports Centre to provide training to promising young talent.

The DSC will also include a District Sports Coaching Centre (DSCC) to impart basic sports and fitness training.

Under the new policy, sports federations and international level players will be given land on lease for setting up of academies. Gram Sabha land earmarked for ‘Khel Ka Maidan’ will be given on lease for rural academies. At least 50 per cent players in the academy will be from UP.

To encourage participation in this programme, social media and other channels will be used for spreading information regarding admissions etc.

The state government also proposes to create the Uttar Pradesh Sports Development Fund with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crores.

Under the policy, yoga will be compulsory in the training program of players and also for school students.

Facilities will be provided for training and practice of yoga in sports stadiums of all district headquarters.

UP Sports Development and Promotion Committee will work to promote sports among all sections of society, like women, handicapped, etc.

It will identify talent and develop their skills. It will also coordinate between sports associations and departments such as youth welfare, education, social welfare, women welfare, health, urban development, industry, army, railways, public undertakings and voluntary organizations.