National Physical Literacy Mission:
The Supreme Court has asked the Centre and States to respond to a report recommending sports to be expressly made a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.
- Further, the report submitted by the court’s amicus curiae (friend of the court) suggested that the “narrow” phrase ‘sport’ be replaced by ‘physical literacy’, which is a term “firmly established as a right in the leading sporting nations of the world”.
- The report was filed in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to amend the Constitution to make sports a fundamental right and amend the Directive Principles of State Policy to include an obligation to “strive for promotion of sports education”.
- It had urged that sports should be transferred to the Concurrent List to facilitate cooperative work between the Centre and states (at present, sports is a state subject).
