Sport is a powerful tool in inclusivity
View(s):Equity is a powerful norm. While the human race keeps stretching its limits to the level of artificial intelligence, hanging on to the dying traditions of male superiority looks archaic. Instead, the message of inclusivity and understanding is becoming a reality and a way of life.
Understanding the above, especially in the Asian region, mainly West and Central Asia even the Olympic Council of Asia and the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOC), is looking to strike a realistic balance among genders. With that in mind the National Olympic Committee with the blessings of the OCA, conducted the ‘Activation Gender Equity in Sports in Sri Lanka through volleyball’ under the theme of Pink Volleyball.
The effort and the task of the organisers to create a grassroot programme with the objective of creating awareness of sports participation of especially girls being inclusive in a game like volleyball, which is thus heralded as the national sport of Sri Lanka. The purpose was to get female volleyball athletes as much as male volleyball athletes involved in the sport. In reality to encourage playing a sport and starting young to any think and behave as one composite society.
After a series of pocket preparations, the final programme of the pilot project was held on June 17 at the Seevali ground in Ratnapura. More than 600 school children from 50 schools in Ratnapura and Kegalle districts in Sabaragamuwa Province joined this pilot project.
The Chairperson of the Gender Equity Committee Niloo Jayathilaka and the President of the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation Kanchana Jayaratne – both Vice Presidents of the NOC put a feather in their respective caps after the conclusion of this ground breaking effort.
Prior to this the NOC Gender Equity Committee launched the “Girls on Par” concept in collaboration with Sri Lanka Golf and HSBC with of promoting inclusivity. This programme too involved the junior golfers or the fledglings between the ages of 9-12.
Initially the programme was the HSBC Future Lions Golf grassroots programme open to youngsters aged 9 to 12 years across the locations, subsequently Junior Golf Development Committee led by Chairperson Niloo Jayatilake, who is also the chairperson of the Gender Equity Committee of the National Olympic Committee stretched the concept further to bottle in the “Girls on Par” programme to be run concurrently.
Once again, the idea behind this was to inculcate to the young minds that sport has no barriers and inclusivity and gender equity thus grows into Gender Equality – a concept that is bartered vigorously in the International Olympic realm.
