A majority of the State government-owned indoor stadia, indoor halls and swimming pools in the State are in disarray.
Consider this: almost all swimming pools have compromised on safety aspects, most indoor stadia and halls and swimming pools do not have coaches, gym instructors and physio-therapists, and there is no common bylaws governing the use of these facilities.
This has been revealed by an evaluation of the condition of 15 indoor stadia, 14 indoor halls and 14 swimming pools conducted by the Centre for Population Dynamics on behalf of the Department of Youth Services and Sports recently.
“All pools make a compromise in terms of safety. There are no safety bars on any side of the swimming pools and there are no life jackets in any pool.
Only two or three tubes have been observed,” the report, a copy of which is available with this paper, noted.
Swimming pools coming under Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and private pools were not evaluated in the study.
But Kanteerava indoor stadium and indoor hall in Bangalore have been evaluated.
The report further said none of the swimming pools has permanent coaches and many of the pools are over-crowded.
“There should be no compromise on the safety regulations, which should be given high priority because of the increasing drowning incidents.
Strict student-coach ratio should be maintained and maximum number of students per batch should be specified and strictly adhered to,” it stated.
Drawbacks
Almost similar is the state of indoor stadia and indoor halls, which offer games like basket ball, volley ball, wrestling, judo, weightlifting, badminton, table tennis, carrom, chess and squash.
“Most facilities and disciplines do not have coaches and the students have to fend for themselves. There is no physio-therapist in any facility,” the report stated.
The study has revealed that wrestling and badminton are most popular among indoor games in terms of user strength and these two disciplines have reported coach availability of 25 per cent in the State.
“For the development of the game, it is desirable for training and practice to be done under the guidance and supervision of a coach,” the report said.
The study has found that the districts of Bangalore Rural, Tumkur, Chamarajnagar, Uttara Kannada, Gadag, Bellary and Yadgir do not have departmental facilities for indoor sports at all.
In districts where the facilities are available, they are being predominantly used by males as not many of them offer special time slot for females.
Necessary steps
When contacted, Youth and Sports Services Department Principal Secretary I R Perumal said the department is taking necessary steps to upgrade the facilities.
“It is difficult to get coaches for all the disciplines. Moreover, the department has very limited budget. Still efforts are being made to appoint coaches and other necessary staff.
I have already issued directions to ensure proper safety at swimming pools,” he added.
Survey findings
*Gulbarga pool has special time for VIP use
* User fee collected across districts varies
* Most users of these facilities are males
* Not many facilities offer special time slots for women users
* Stadia in Bangalore and Mysore have been used for non-sports events
Recommendations
* Outsource maintenance of pools
* Regular users may be requested to pitch in as coaches for the juniors/beginners
* Concession in user fee for sportspersons, students and females
* Facilities should not be monopolised by VIPs
* Renting facilities for non-sports events be discontinued
* The management and administrative committee should comprise 50 per sportspersons and 50 per cent govt representatives and community members