Foolproof age certificate has become a necessity

Vimal Kumar | president, Karnataka Badminton Association
Age fraud in a sport is a menace that needs to be arrested right at the beginning. Such is the current situation in India that every age certificate parents produce, whether authentic or fake, is looked upon with a certain amount of suspicion and doubt. Some parents claim they don’t have the necessary hospital records to determine their child’s age.When the association challenges this, they go to court and the laws help them obtain a certificate authenticating whatever records they produce.
The only way out is implementation of a mandatory government certificate. It should be a must when the child is two or three years old, when parents approach schools or nurseries for enrolment. Such a document may not completely eradicate age fraud, but will certainly help bring down manipulation to two or three months. A directive should be sent to all schools and sports federations across India that no parent should be encouraged without such a document. They should be strict so there’s a fear which discourages any plans of age manipulation. Furthermore, government policies should be made transparent so they reach the common man. A lot of good decisions tend to remain on paper. More importantly, the Central Bureau of Investigation's Sports Integrity Unit should come up with guidelines that cannot be challenged or appealed against by fraudsters. The need of the hour is implementation of a government age verification certificate. Only with such foolproof measures in place, I feel that 5-10 years from now, we’ll be able to confidently say we’ve eradicated age fraud in our country.