Copyright thehindu
In 2024, the management of Agurchand Manmull Jain College in Meenambakkam made a bold vision to combine academics and sports for holistic development and well-being of students. Towards that end they started building the sports infrastructure. The college today has a sprawling cricket ground, air-conditioned badminton, basketball and volleyball courts. To groom talent, they reached out to Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu seeking its help in identifying deserving and promising female players in sports such as boxing, fencing, judo, weightlifting and athletics. “Here again we decided to encourage individual sports events and those that generally do not get the limelight,” says M. Ramya, dean of A.M. Jain College. The college received a bunch of applications forwarded by SDAT, a majority being students from rural areas and those whose families do not have the wherewithal to support their wards in competitive sports. The students were shortlisted through the regular selection process which considered achievements in school, laurels won in sports and financial situation in the family. Of the 50 under graduate and post graduate students availing the sports scholarship in the college in the last two academic years, 33 of them were referred by SDAT. Advertisements issued during the start of the academic year have a mention of the college offering sport scholarships to any meritorious student. Under this arrangement, promising sports players enjoy a host of benefits. They stay at the SDAT hostel in Chetpet which makes it easy for them to travel to Nehru Stadium for practice. “We have an exclusive bus to pick and drop the students from and to the hostel; and 100 per cent fee waiver is offered,” says the dean. “We provide everything from sport kit to uniform pertaining to the sport the student focusses on. Whenever they go for tournaments their expenses are met by the management.” The entire expense for this is borne by the college management. The students also get academic support. “For instance, four students were completely occupied because of CM Trophy, so the class teachers had to ensure notes were sent to them. Remedial classes are conducted after college hours, retest if they missed writing an exam and at times online classes are conducted as per their availability,” she says. The college is already seeing the benefits of promoting sports. “When one students excels in sports, we noticed that 10 others are getting inspired,” says Ramya. The college does not have a PET period on the timetable, but now they are getting inputs from students to include it even if it is beyond college hours. “That mindset has come into play and we are only happy to bring about such changes for the overall development of our students,” says Ramya, adding that the college has got a female cricket coach and will soon be establishing a pickle ball court.
