Government has revised the payment of athletes and support staff travelling for approved competitions abroad (foreign exposures). The sport fraternity welcomes the move saying this is encouraging for us.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) has revised the upper ceiling amount of boarding and lodging for Indian Athletes and team officials by 66%.
This is for the athletes and officials participating only in international competitions, under the Ministry’s Scheme of Assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs).
Under the newly revised norm, athletes and support staff travelling for approved competitions abroad (foreign exposures) will now be entitled to USD 250 per day, which is an increase of 66% from an earlier norm of USD 150 per day.
Speaking to The Statesman, Gyan Singh, a coach with the Wrestlers Federation of India said, “This is very encouraging. The move will certainly add up to the Energy levels of the athletes and team officials. A huge step towards boosting the moral and this would help to change the mental frame of everyone”.
Airing similar views, an International referee Jagbeer Singh Said, “This is high time that the sportspersons travelling abroad get better financial support. This is certainly help better”.
The revision has been made taking into consideration the requests from NSFs, wherein they have mentioned that rates for boarding & lodging fixed by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the competitions are higher than the existing ceiling of USD 150 per day. These norms for boarding & lodging were fixed way back in November 2015 and it has been eight years since the revision of the same had taken place.
With the increase in the ceiling for boarding and lodging, the NSFs will be able to arrange reasonably better accommodations for athletes when competing and representing the country at various International Competitions.
Further, as per recent trends, the Local Organizing Committees(LOC) of International Competitions are offering a complete hospitality package to the participating teams rather than merely boarding and lodging as was the case earlier.
The package includes boarding, lodging, local transportation, and on some occasions entry fees as well. The total cost of the package is much above USD 150 per person per day. These considerations have necessitated review of boarding and lodging norms fixed in 2015.