The National Association for Sports, Health and Fitness

ICSSPE talked to Diwakar Lal Amatya, the President of the Nepalese National Association for Sports, Health and Fitness (NASHF).

ICSSPE: Diwakar, how would you describe your organisation's vision and mission?

Lal Amatya: The National Association for Sports Health and Fitness is an organisation concerned with the promotion and development of sport, sport science and physical education as well as healthy living amongst the Nepalese people. To meet the growing need of our modern society, the organisation reaches out to all Nepalese citizens and tries to mobilise them in order to fulfil our objectives.  

ICSSPE: What is your specific function within the organisation?

Lal Amatya: I am the founding president of the NASHF and do this as a volunteer. My main work as expert for the National Sports Council in Kathmandu and as lecturer at Mangal Multiple Campus in Kirtipure has equipped me with the necessary knowledge and experience to serve the NASHF. In fact I have conducted various studies on sport in Nepal and have shared my results with physical education students at university.

ICSSPE: Which activities and projects are implemented in order to reach your goals and objectives?

Lal Amatya: In order to reach our goals, we do a lot of smaller studies on Nepalese national teams from the perspective of various disciplines. We also organise sport seminars and workshops for coaches and physical education students and physical education teachers. Furthermore we publish books covering different sport-related topics and areas.

ICSSPE: What are the organisation's target groups and who do you work together with?

Lal Amatya: Our main target groups are athletes of different sports, coaches, physical education students and teachers. We also offer general programmes for all citizens on health and fitness. In this context we work closely together with athletes and coaches of various sports, physical education students and teachers.

ICSSPE: How does your organisation plan on positioning itself within the next few years and which topics are considered particularly important to be dealt with?

Lal Amatya: All the activities we were doing in the past will continue in future. In particular we are advocating for a sports law in Nepal that benefits the athletes, coaches and grassroots participants. There is still no proper system of coaching and teaching and hardly any programmes to support retired athletes. We urgently need to do something about this and develop dual-career concepts. In addition we are going to develop a website called "Sports and Culture - Nepal", so that Nepalese as well as others will have access to information about Nepalese sport culture. This will specifically help students with regard to their research activities.  

ICSSPE: Considering the pressing issues in the sport sector (doping, match fixing, participation, access, good governance, sustainability, etc.) how relevant do you think it is to foster cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration amongst different stakeholders in order to solve these problems?

Lal Amatya: With regard to doping it is to be said that in Nepal one can by any kind of medicine without a prescription. We therefore have a grave problem of doping amongst active athletes in Nepal. I have already done one study on the matter and I think education and prevention are needed. In fact I am planning to put up a unit on doping in our college and a course within our master degree programme.

Another major problem is a low sport participation rate amongst Nepalese people. This caused by the fact that especially in the rural areas people don’t have the time and money to engage in sports. Public schools do not have any funds to enable participation in national school sports competitions. In addition facilities and infrastructure in general are very poor. This of course in turn affects the development of high performance sport.

Although the government has published a sport development policy paper, which expresses the objective to optimise the conditions, the implementation is hardly proceeding. The government does not invest sufficiently and provide schools and colleges with enough funds to improve their infrastructure or participate in competitions.    

Bearing these scenarios in mind it is therefore all the more important to foster links with the relevant ministries responsible for sports and youth, women and children, welfare, tourism, and defence. Instead of going their own ways all actors should work together and find a way to harmonise their activities. This approach should be accompanied by long-term strategy aimed at improving the health and well-being of the Nepalese people.

ICSSPE: Which benefits does your organisation gain from its ICSSPE membership and how does the ICSSPE network contribute to achievement of your goals?

Lal Amatya: Our membership in ICSSPE since 2003 has helped us achieving our goal in particular due to the information and expertise we receive through news, publications and mailings. With the help of ICSSPE, we have received many books from Human Kinetics, which is vital given the severe lack of available research data in Nepal. In addition ICSSPE provides us with a platform to express our needs and the challenges sport and sport science face in our country. Accordingly we can not only raise awareness but work together with other members and exchange knowledge.