Whalesbook
India's growing investment in sports is overshadowed by systemic failures in athlete safety. Despite increasing public funding and elite training, a lack of consolidated data on harassment complaints and a reliance on reactive measures highlight critical gaps. The proposed National Sports Governance Act lacks operational capacity, leaving federations to manage safety independently, leading to inconsistent standards and delayed responses. A new, independent National Safe Sports Institute is proposed to focus on prevention through standardized training and audits.
India's pursuit of sporting excellence, marked by increased public investment and advanced training systems, is increasingly being questioned due to a significant underinvestment in athlete safety. Recent parliamentary disclosures revealed 33 sexual harassment complaints filed with the Sports Authority of India (SAI) over a decade, with 25 against coaches. Crucially, no centralized national record exists across various sports federations, where most organized sporting activities occur.
Weak Systems Mask Deeper Issues
These statistics are not mere administrative oversights; they point to fundamental structural weaknesses. In the high-authority, precarious environment of professional sports, reporting misconduct is inherently challenging. The absence of comprehensive data often signifies systemic deficiencies rather than a lack of incidents. The problem extends beyond harassment to include excessive training loads leading to career-ending injuries and unaddressed mental health issues like burnout and anxiety, often overlooked in environments that prioritize resilience over support.
The National Sports Governance Act and Its Limitations
The National Sports Governance Act of 2025 represents a step towards athlete welfare and safe sport principles. However, its effectiveness is hampered by a lack of operational capability for large-scale implementation. Federations and institutions are tasked with compliance but are largely left to interpret and execute safe sport practices independently, resulting in fragmented standards, uneven training, and reactive measures only after harm has occurred.
A Proposed Solution: The National Safe Sports Institute
International best practices suggest the creation of specialized, independent institutions focused on prevention. Such bodies in leading sporting nations provide standardized coach training, competency certification, and compliance audits. India could adopt a similar model with a National Safe Sports Institute. This non-governmental entity, aligned with public policy, would focus on capability-building: developing multilingual, digital training for coaches and physical education teachers, implementing competency-based certifications, and conducting independent audits.
A technology backbone would enable scalable, standardized content delivery, verifiable digital certifications, and the creation of a national compliance evidence base. This approach would shift the focus from a complaint-driven model to one prioritizing prevention. A pilot program within SAI could test these processes before extending the framework to committed state sports development programs and integrating it into formal training pathways. Establishing credibility through independence, with safeguards and representation from athletes and experts, is crucial for this institute's success. India has a track record of building effective public-interest institutions; sport should be no exception.