Andhra Pradesh to Introduce 3% Sports Quota to Boost Athletic Development
The minister commended the BCCI for introducing equal match fees and pay for women cricketers, calling it "a key development in promoting cricketers regardless of gender."
Visakhapatnam: Education Minister Nara Lokesh has announced the implementation of a 3 per cent sports quota aimed at promoting athletic talent across the state.
The announcement was made at an interactive session the minister had here on Friday with Indian women's cricket team players, styled as "Breaking Boundaries with Nara Lokesh."
The minister outlined the state’s ambitious plans for sports development over the next decade and praised the achievements of women cricketers.
"Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has a unique history in promoting sports, having organised the Afro-Asian Games and built an international-standard sports village," Lokesh said, adding, "We will take planned action for sports development in Andhra Pradesh over the next ten years."
The minister acknowledged current limitations in sports infrastructure, noting that while the state has 43,000 schools, there existed a shortage of physical education teachers (PETs) and adequate playgrounds.”Developing the sports sector would require systematic changes rather than overnight transformation.”
Lokesh praised the women cricketers for overcoming challenges, including “inadequate” media coverage and limited facilities that historically plagued women's sports. "Your journey from different backgrounds to this level has not been easy. Women's cricket was long seen only as a sub-sector of men's sports, but now the situation has changed," he said.
The minister commended the BCCI for introducing equal match fees and pay for women cricketers, calling it "a key development in promoting cricketers regardless of gender."
To support women athletes, he said, the state government has introduced several initiatives, including scholarships, annual coaching camps, hostel accommodation, and travel allowances for sportswomen and para-athletes. Competitions would also be organised at district and state levels.
During the session, women cricketers proposed several recommendations for sports development such as creation of special curricula for women athletes participating in tournaments, development of a sports ecosystem from inter-school to national levels, provision of scholarships and sports kits for economically disadvantaged athletes, organisation of special sports camps in rural areas to identify talent and integration of sports into academic curricula.
