The Khelo India Dus ka Dum event, which was held pan-India from March 10 to 31, in commemoration of the International Women’s Day 2023, saw a massive 1,00,000+ participation by girls from all over the country in 1500+ sports events. The State of Madhya Pradesh has had the highest representation of athletes with 30975 athletes competing across 580 events.
Khelo India Dus ka Dum was inaugurated by Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports , Sh Anurag Singh Thakur at the JLN Stadium on March 10.
Madhya Pradesh is followed by Andhra Pradesh, which saw a total participation of 17011 female athletes across 150 events. The events were organized by State and District administrations and held across States across its Cities/Districts, Universities across its Campuses/Colleges, SAI Regional Centres across its National Centres of Excellence, SAI Training Centres, Extension Centres, Khelo India Centres, Khelo India State Centres of Excellence as well as Khelo India Accredited Academies. The National Sports Federations also joined in through its State or Districts unit in consultation and support of Sports Authority of India (SAI) and other stakeholders.
The Department of Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, under the Sports for Women component of Khelo India Scheme, integrated the International Women’s Day celebrations, with organization of sports competitions for multiple age groups of women across the nation. The Dus ka Dum event was held from Srinagar in Jammu to Thrissur in Kerala and Kokrajhar in Assam to Amravati in Maharashtra and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. The sports disciplines which featured were Kho-kho, Swimming, Athletics, Wushu, Archery, Fencing, Judo, Weightlifting, Hockey and Yogasana.
On social media, the Khelo India Dus ka Dum reached massive impressions. The total reach was 140 million and the total number of interactions during the course of the event reached over 1.4 million.
The Dus ka Dum event was a continuation of the numerous Khelo India Women’s Leagues that have taken place over the course of last one year. The Women’s Leagues witnessed more than 240 competitions with participation of more than 23,000 women athletes across various age groups. The Khelo India Women’s League have been held in more than 50 cities located across 27 different States/UTs. Multiple national records have also been set during various stages of the League.
The main purpose of these leagues was to not only strengthen the domestic competition structure and the talent identification but also to empower the girl athlete to compete and find her footing in sports as a career.