Fitness and Sports now part of Gram Panchayat Development Programme: Rijiju

by Kheltoday · Published February 4, 2021 · Updated February 24, 2021

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Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju while inaugurating Fit India office at Nehru stadium in New Delhi talks about taking Fit India initiative to villages

By Rakesh Thapliyal

New Delhi: Fit India movement is big hit among the people from all walks of life. This is one of the many initiatives taken by sports and fitness loving Prime minister Narendra Modi. Fit India movement is already become part of lakhs of people’s life in the country. Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju on February 3rd inaugurated the new Fit India Mission office at Nehru stadium and openly accepted that his ministry is bit late in starting this office but he was satisfied with the way workforce involved is working.

During the inauguration ceremony, he said, “Fit India Movement is just playing the role of a catalyst and it has become a truly a people’s movement as envisioned by the Honourable Prime Minister.”

The event was also attended by many officials and dignitaries from the Sports Ministry, Sports Authority of India (SAI), Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MYAS). Ekta Vishnoi, I.R.S., Mission Director of Fit India welcomed sports minister and other guests. Rijiju not only congratulated the work of people involved but also praised the sitting arrangement of the Fit India office.

The Fit India Mission was launched by Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 29th August 2019 and in a short period of time has become a mass fitness movement across the country.

Rijiju further added “Close to 70lakh NYKS & NNS youth volunteers have been in the forefront of reaching out to the people and not only helping them but also creating awareness about the Fit India Mission. We are now in discussion with the Ministry of Panchayat and they have introduced sports and fitness as part of their Gram Panchayat Development Programme (GPDP) which was not there earlier and, in the future, we are thinking adding more strategies in which we can identify which village should have which fitness program and have a more regulated mechanism in identifying them.”

Further elaborating on Fit India’s plan to incorporate more villages, Shri Ravi Mital, Secretary of Sports said “This year we are collaborating with around 60 to 70 lacs Youth Affair volunteers to take Fitness to all villages and you will see this from 1st March onwards itself where we will now have one year campaign to take fitness to all villages. We have already taken Fitness to over 2.2 lakh schools which are spread all over the country and many of them are in the rural areas. So, we have already taken fitness to the Rural Areas of the country.”