MUMBAI: Investment in creating sports infrastructure and a culture of participation in sports is crucial, Srinivas Prasad, minister at India’s UN Mission, told a General Assembly session.
Pointing out that cricket and its stars provide a very important platform for spreading social messages, Prasad said that cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar was a good example of how sportspersons can take social messages to the masses.
Tendulkar has been involved in a campaign for personal hygiene practices among children and also promotes the national “Swachh Bharat” programme, Prasad said at the session on Sport for Development and Peacebuilding, on Monday.
Prasad said that while organised sports were a major source of entertainment, the challenge before the world was to extend the pleasures of sports to millions of children in developing countries, reports IANS.
For this, “the first task is the creation of safe open spaces and playing areas” for children who do not have them, he said.
“Indian cricket’s greatest icon, Sachin Tendulkar, illustrates this… Tendulkar was part of a popular national campaign to promote hygiene among children which encouraged school children to wash their hands before eating food. Similarly, he has recently been a brand ambassador for the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign,” the minister said.
