The Khel Mahakumbh in Gujarat is gearing up for its next round of registration, and this time officials are aiming for a record number of participants.
Last year’s event saw over 7.1 million athletes registering online, with a total of 39 sports included. This year, expectations are high that registration will exceed those numbers.
Schools and colleges have been given specific targets to ensure every student registers as an athlete in at least one sport. Teachers and physical education instructors are under pressure to register between 1,000 and 1,500 players daily. To support this initiative, both the sports department and senior officials from the education sector have stepped in.
Incentives are on the table: The top three institutions with the highest registrations stand to receive cash prizes of ₹500,000, ₹300,000, and ₹200,000 respectively. However, experts point out a gap between reported numbers and actual participation.
While online figures might show hundreds of teams registered for team sports, real-world participation often reveals half those numbers on the field. Many schools only register students without sending them to compete. This inflation skews true statistics about who is actually participating in competitions.