Khalchain (Amritsar), Mar 9 : Khaidan Khalchain Diyan, the sports meet organized here has inspired village youth in the region to be disciplined and become sportsmen.

Village Khalchain, located near Amritsar, has been holding the rural sports meet since 1952. Since then, event is growing bigger by the year.

The event was started by four sports teachers, who wanted to turn the village youth towards sports to prevent them from getting addicted to drugs.

More sportsperson, spectators and NRI donors are joining the event to encourage the youth to take to sports.

Khaidan Khalchain Diyan secretary Avtar Singh Cheema said they were working in various schools to start a game centre.

"The young generation is getting into bad habits. Keeping that in mind, five to six teachers of our village thought of starting a game centre, where students of all the villages could come for coaching. Five of our boys have already participated in athletics and football at the national level," Cheema said.

A NRI from the village, Sukhjinder Singh Dhillon, said that such activities were important for stopping today's youth from taking to take drugs.

"Such activities are very important because today's generation has started taking drugs and getting into bad habits. People have become materialistic, so it's very difficult to get them together. In comparison to other countries, we are backward. Organization of sports at the village level is very good I am happy to come here," Dhillon said.

Boys and girls from 14 nearby villages actively participate in the three-day sports meet that includes events like kabaddi, volleyball, weightlifting, football and athletics.

The sports meet is vigorously supported by NRIs, who come every year to boost the morale of participants and organizers and donate money .

An NRI, Rupinder Tillon said he enjoyed watching Kabaddi tournament.

"A sportsman is born in a village - never in cities. I stay in California but I go to Vancouver every year to watch kabaddi tournament. Seeing big players of the kabaddi, I feel many times that a player of my village, area or district should come here and play at the international level," Tillon said.

Kabaddi team captain Bajinder thanked the Punjab Government for giving recognition to the game.

"Kabaddi is the mother of all games. It started from villages but now has reached at Asian level. I want to thank the Punjab Government that kabaddi has got recognition in Punjab. That day is not very far when kabaddi will be played in Olympics," Bajinder added.

Beside the annual sports meet, the village provides regular coaching to the youth of nearby villages and encourages them to take on sports as a profession. (ANI)