Swimming against tide to tap talent

Talented swimmers in the state “swim away’’ to other states in search of jobs leaving the state out of contention in major sports events in this discipline.

Creating a pool of trained swimmers is a challenge that has now been taken up by the Kerala Aquatic Association.

It has put forward an innovative proposal ‘SMART SCHEME’ (Swimmers Adoption and Regular Training Scheme) to the government which envisages training children at a tender age and moulding them into potential champion swimmers.

The young swimmers during their training period would be provided with a stipend of Rs 1,000 per month which will be deposited in bank accounts opened in the name of the children.

The proposal, which is unique in many aspects, was made in the wake of increasing ‘drain’ of swimming talent to other states like Delhi, Punjab and defence departments like Services, BSF, CRPF and Railways.

According to the proposal, children aged 12 will be adopted after rigorous screening and they would be given world-class training for six years.

The swimmers during the course of the training will be sent for various competitions and national level championships.

At the age of 18 when the swimmers are eligible for government jobs, they will be inducted into the state service under the sports quota on the basis of their achievements. S Rajiv, treasurer of Swimming Federation of India, said, “it’s disheartening to sit idle and watch the talent migrating to other states in search of jobs. Most of the swimmers come from poor families and depend on the sports for procuring jobs. Departments like Services which have their own sports schools lure talented junior swimmers and train them.

When they turn 18, the swimmers will get placement there. “During the last two years, we lost almost 10 talented swimmers and water polo players, all of them top performers in their pet events, in this manner. The only way to checkmate this situation is by forcing them to stay back and settle here. That’s why we drafted the proposal to train 12 children, 6 boys and 6 girls,” he said. The proposal has been forwarded to the department of sports for approval. State senior swimming team manager N Suresh Kumar applauded the move for grooming youngsters.