Suheil Tandon is the founder of Pro Sport Development (PSD) which works across 15 states in India and has reached out to 11,412 young people.
Suheil Tandon founded Pro Sport Development (PSD) in 2013 with the goal of assisting talented poor and marginalised youngsters in pursuing greatness in sports. The major issue in India is a lack of sporting resources, not a lack of talent.
PSD sought to assist fill that need and nurture the next generation of superstar athletes. Tandon, on the other hand, was taken aback by an incidence at the commencement of their first job.
A young female weightlifter, 15, did not return to school following the summer break.
When PSD inquired about her, they learned that her family had planned her wedding over the vacation. Her potential weightlifting career was unimportant to the girl’s family.
Tandon modified the curriculum in the short term to emphasise the broader advantages of athletics, but PSD was still aimed around developing medal winners. It was a success by that metric, with the competitors winning over 25 medals on the national stage.
Tandon realised, however, that focusing just on athletic accomplishment would not solve the greater societal hurdles to participation in sports in India, particularly for ladies. As a result, PSD’s mandate was formally broadened in 2015.
“At this time, we made a deliberate and strategic choice to shift our vision and go forward by utilising athletics as a vehicle for the complete development of young people,” Tandon explains.
In other words, via the development of an inclusive and sustainable athletic culture, the organisation would attempt to enhance a young person’s full human potential.
Tandon had always been interested in sports, having participated in and watched a variety of them as a child, but it wasn’t until he was in college, studying mathematics and economics, that he realised a career in sports was a possible possibility. That’s where his passion in developing athletes at the grassroots level began, leading to the formation of PSD with the help of family and friends.
PSD now operates in 15 Indian states and has reached out to 11,412 young people, 51% of them are girls. It has two main teams, one in Delhi and one in Bhubaneshwar.
Schoolchildren are given access to organised physical exercise and sports-based programming through its programmes, which helps them develop soft skills such as teamwork and leadership.
PSD has also set a more ambitious objective of transforming the country’s perception of sports. The results of their efforts may be observed in the personality development of youngsters like Shibani Pradhan, whose father owns his own auto rickshaw.
Pradhan was 11 years old when she enrolled in the PSD programme in Bhubaneswar. Pradhan, now 14, a class 10 student at Saraswati Sishu Vidhya Mandir, used to enjoy games with her classmates but had little knowledge of organised sports. She now really likes playing cricket and badminton.
She describes participating in PSD’s programmes as “a lot of fun,” and she has learnt what is needed of a team member in athletics as well as leadership.
Off the field, there have been significant advantages. PSD’s activities are centred on the Community Sports Program (CSP), which has touched over 3,000 youngsters in Bhubaneshwar.
The CSP also includes the training of community trainers and instructors, ensuring that the programme is local, sustainable, and inclusive. During the shutdown, PSD was forced to adopt an online approach that featured live workshops for anyone with internet access.
Srabani Patra, a class 10 student of Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir in Bhubaneshwar, was among them. Patra learnt about gender stereotypes through CSP in 2021, notably in the family, where parents treat boys and daughters differently. Patra gained the courage to debate gender standards with her father, Krushna Chandra Patra, and as a result, her entire family has begun to challenge current gender conventions in their society.
PSD aims to inspire this type of change across the country as the organisation expands. It’s also how the organisation analyses programme performance after changing its purpose in 2015.
According to Tandon, the agency employs “quantitative and qualitative data gathering methodologies to analyse the outcomes and effect of the projects”.
Participants complete surveys at the beginning and conclusion of programmes to assess personal progress. PSD also conducts interviews with trainers, peers, instructors, and parents to assess the nature and scope of any changes.
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