SIDDHARTHA UPADHYAY

SPORTS AUTHORITY OF INDIA (Co-Chair – Sports)

If charity begins at home, so does transformation. Guided by Mahatma Gandhi immortal words, ‘My life is my message’, I believe my actions are my philosophy. In some measure, we are all potential change agents. I’m part of an endeavour that paved the way for hundreds of thousands of children and youth to come out and play. They played hard and changed their reality—achieved success, were recognised and rewarded, and, most importantly, they could reclaim their lives.

A small beginning was made with an initiative started near Majnu-ka-Tila in North Delhi. Youth, children and even the elderly, came out in large numbers, cleared and levelled a barren patch of land -- otherwise the venue for gambling and such activities -- next to a busy highway, and started to play. In a couple of years, there were more than a hundred such centres running in Delhi, engaging thousands of urban poor, hidden away from the affluent gated communities, by way of sports. The small initiative transformed into a movement.