- 5/22/2025
Speaking at India Today's State of the States: Sikkim at 50, Bhaichung Bhutia pointed out that India’s FIFA ranking has dropped from 96 in 2017 to 127 in 2024 — a sharp decline that has occurred during Kalyan Chaubey’s tenure as AIFF President. The regression reflects deeper structural issues that continue to plague Indian football.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon everyone. Next to me, as was just mentioned a short while ago, a man who
00:05needs no introduction. 100 plus caps for the Indian team, 40 plus international goals,
00:11the second highest in the history of Indian football. Arguably the greatest footballer
00:18to have played for India. Let's have another round of applause for Baichung Bhutia. Baichung,
00:26always a pleasure to talk to you. We go back a long way. First thing, how does it feel
00:32to be in a hot and humid Delhi from fine, balmy, Sikkim, where it must be 20-22 degrees.
00:40How does it feel to be in a city that you visit very often? It feels great because I
00:46think I've had wonderful memories in Delhi when I played here. Obviously when you speak
00:52of football, my football school's headquarters is based in Delhi, so I keep coming to Delhi
00:57quite often and my kids are studying in Gurgaon, so we have a house here, so Delhi is like
01:02a second home. If Delhi is second home, you should have continued with politics as well.
01:09Why have you quit politics? No, I think I had my share of politics and now it's been
01:15almost a year and a half I've quit, very happy. I think something which I've tried and I feel
01:21that it's time to really move on and do something in other sectors and which I think I'm very
01:28very happy right now, so yeah politics is always there and politics obviously is in
01:32every sector of it, whether it's tourism, football, education, politics is going to
01:38come in, but I think it's very important for a lot of sports person to come into politics
01:42because I keep saying this because I think every success for all the sports person is
01:48through their own dedication, sincerity and discipline. I think if that kind of discipline,
01:53sincerity and honesty for their success that they've achieved in sports, they can bring
01:57into politics, I think India and Sikkim and North East would really really do well and
02:05I hope a lot of sports person comes into it. I know that cricketers are never going to
02:11come in because I think they've had share of their success, so they don't want to come
02:15into it, but I think it's very important for them to come in because through politics
02:20policies are made for every sector including sports, so once you have right policies in
02:24sports, I think India can become one of the most strong sporting nation which we are trying
02:29and now Honorable Prime Minister and Government of India is trying to host Olympics in near
02:34future and that's where I think we need to really make sure that we develop and produce
02:39lot of sports person that goes on to win Olympic medals.
02:44You summed it up so well, so I hope you are not retired from politics permanently, there's
02:48no retirement age. You never know. So that door is open because like he says you need
02:54good people in politics, I hope like a true fighter that you were on the football field
02:59you continue to fight here, get back into politics. I want to talk to you about a lot
03:03of things, about Sikkim of course, about sports in Sikkim and also the general health of Indian
03:08football which at the moment doesn't seem very good, but let's start with Sikkim. Very
03:13interesting that I don't want to reveal his age, but it's available on internet. He is
03:19the same age as the state of Sikkim, so that's incredible. Were you the first one in your
03:26family to be born in India? So yeah, I think I was the first child to be born as an Indian
03:32and all my elder brothers and sister and my obviously family, lot of people from Sikkim
03:37were identified, so I am very very proud Indian, I was born as an Indian, so I am very
03:42proud Indian, but yes growing up there as a child, it was very different because you
03:48hear stories of father because they just lost the country, so growing up there for me was
03:54a different story of India then, because obviously they had a sentiment for, he was a pro king
04:00thing and they just lost the country and also I got to hear a lot of stories within our
04:07village as well, there was a lot of riots that happened, I think my grandfather's house
04:11was burned, his house was looted, so there were a lot of negativity stories growing up,
04:16but I think over 50 years things have changed, I think we progressed so much, we have been
04:20one of the most peaceful state, we have been one of the most productive state and for me
04:24I feel very proud to be an Indian and now I have got kids, so they get to hear a lot
04:30of good stories about Indian success stories and I am very happy when I speak to my kids,
04:35they are just teenagers now and I would want them to be sports person, go on to play for
04:40India, if not even they can go on to become in air force like their grandfather, so very
04:46proud Indian, but yes growing up listening to a lot of stories through my father, I think
04:51I had a very different picture, but I think life has to move on and everybody now, I think
04:56in Sikkim, all the Sikkimese people are I think very proud to be part of India and we
05:00progress and develop so much.
05:02Right, so you are actually the perfect example of that transition, Baichung himself, he has
05:07seen it from his father to himself and now his son as well, I get to sport, that's your
05:13forte, North East per se overall has been that region in India that has contributed
05:19immensely to sports in India, where do you see Sikkim's contribution, because you have
05:23got other states, neighbouring states that on the face of it seem to have done better,
05:28you have got Manipur and Assam that has a rich legacy, of course Sikkim has produced
05:33footballers and boxers, but where do you see the future of sports in Sikkim?
05:39No I think for us, Manipur sets up such a high standard for all the other North Eastern
05:44states to catch up, but I think Sikkim over the years have always contributed for sports
05:49in India, in a smaller way but there has always been, especially in football, if you look
05:54at from the 70s, I think we had Jerry Bassi that went on to play for India, then 80s,
05:5890s we had Trapam Dorji, then I played for quite some time and now if you look at the
06:04current generation of Indian players from Sikkim, we have got Ashish Rai, we have got
06:08Lachhan Pa playing, so that contribution has always been there in football, just not football
06:13as well, in other sports like we have got Tarun Deep who is an archer Olympian, he has
06:17been last Olympics, he was part of the Olympic team in archery, in Asian games as well, so
06:24there has always been a contribution for sports in a smaller way when you compare with other
06:30North East, especially Manipur, obviously we have got a long way to catch, but I feel
06:34that there is always scope for us to improve and there is potential, but yes we will have
06:39to do a lot of work.
06:41See the simple question is, and I am talking as an Indian, even when I was coming in everyone
06:45is asking me, why can't Sikkim give us 10, 11 Baichung Bhutias, that is what we need
06:51at the moment.
06:52I think it is possible, I think, but yes again if you look at Sikkim, sports is very very
06:58popular especially football and I don't know you should visit Sikkim during 15th August
07:03time and lot of people are here from Sikkim, every village, every corner of Sikkim, there
07:09is a football tournament along cultural event going on, so lot of the village people even
07:14would not know what is 15th August, but they know that it is a football and a cultural
07:19thing.
07:20So for us I think in Sikkim what is happening with lot of sporting events, we are celebrating
07:24as a festival because that becomes a festival, 10 day festival, we have Governor's Gold Cup,
07:30all of us look at as a big festival, football plus cultural thing, but it is important at
07:34the same time with the festival the popularity is very important, but at the same time parallelly
07:39we should make sure that there is a development program going on as well.
07:43So 10 days of 15th August of culture and football, after that nothing happens.
07:47We need to look into grass root to make sure that they are playing every week, competing
07:51every week, which is more to copy from a European football structure, sports structure, so that
07:57the grass root football or any other sports, there are kids competing, training every week,
08:03every weekend they are competing, through the weekdays they are training and it is just
08:08not for Sikkim, but I think overall if you look at football culture in India, I think
08:12that is the system we need to bring in, but unfortunately I think I am with federation,
08:16I am in executive committee meeting through elite sports person, the difficult and sad
08:22part and the sad reality is I think we need to still make sure that we have vision 2047,
08:28but just keeping it vision 2047 in paper is not going to work.
08:32The work has to be done in the grass root level.
08:35So I think that is where, and it is not very costly at all, you know it is just making
08:40sure that you are organised, because every school, every government has got sports department,
08:45they have got physical teachers, physical education teachers there, so it is just about
08:50organising and making sure that the grass root kids are getting to play every weekend
08:54within their own villages and maybe twice a week they are training through one of those
08:58physical education teachers, so that the process is not just for 10 days of competition, finish
09:03it and you need to have a longer period, that is what exactly lot of community works are
09:08done in Europe and that is where lot of players are produced for lot of big clubs.
09:13Okay, because you touch upon Indian football and that is also an area I am interested,
09:18I want to speak to you about, I will get back to grass root, I will get back to Sikkim,
09:22you talk about Indian football having a vision 2047, you know it has been more than two decades,
09:28I have covered Indian football, I remember Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president come here
09:32in 2012, say India is a sleeping giant and maybe 2024, 25 we will be playing the FIFA
09:39World Cup, we are sitting in 2025, we are still sleeping, are you worried about where
09:45Indian football is, because that goal post keeps getting shifted.
09:49No, because I am connected with football from grass root to even, you know, right now again
09:55with federation, I had my own football club in Sikkim once upon a time, which is still
09:59there in a smaller level and with Baichung Bhutia football school, we are the biggest
10:04grass root football program in India with more than 6000 kids training every day.
10:08So yes, there is a worrying factor, lot of, I am in the federation, you know, we obviously
10:14have lot of debates and discussion and sometimes it is very difficult to convince people within
10:19the federation to really make sure that we need to make sure the football in the grass
10:24root is done seriously, but you try and put lot of restrictions are something which is
10:28very, very difficult, which is not nice.
10:31First of all, you know, to start an academy, they are asking you to get license to it,
10:35which is, we want kids, more and more kids to come and play, we want as many academies
10:40all across India to come and play.
10:42So if you put on restrictions at starting an academy, getting certificate to play and
10:48then if your kid is from any other state, you can't play in that particular state, represent
10:52another state, so you are trying to cut down lot of talent and I will give you a biggest
10:56example of a girls under 15 team.
11:01So I think few years ago, Lakshadweep won the under 15 sub-junior girls championship.
11:08The entire team of Lakshadweep were the girls from Haryana.
11:14So you know, the Haryana girls actually went on to play finals with them.
11:19So this remaining 20 girls, they were not selected, they were talented because they
11:23already, the state had such a huge talent, so 20 players from Haryana were already selected,
11:28so the remaining girls, so they decided to go and play for Lakshadweep.
11:32And in that tournament, Lakshadweep played against Haryana and they went on to win and
11:35some of the girls went on to play for India right now.
11:39Some of the girls went on to play for India right now.
11:41Now when you come in the federation and put restrictions saying that you are from Haryana,
11:45you are from Manipur, you can't represent certain state, then you are cutting out lot
11:48of talent.
11:50Because if you look at North East today, we don't have great academies because lot of
11:54the players have to come out of North East and play in academies in Delhi, Bombay or
11:58Bangalore.
11:59You know, you've got Reliance Academies, you've got Tata Academy.
12:03So the North East states have challenges.
12:06It's very difficult to run a club and an academy because it does, there's a huge cost.
12:11So when there's kids, talented kids don't get that opportunity in North East or any,
12:15like for example, Jharkhand, there's no football.
12:18Jharkhand today in sub-junior girls and boys, they have the maximum number of players playing
12:22for it.
12:23If they don't move out of Jharkhand and come and join Minerva's or Baichung Bhutia football
12:26academies or Sudeva's here in Delhi, then they don't get that platform.
12:31But then in federation, if you try and cut that, saying that no, you come from different
12:36state, you can't play, then you are losing a lot of talent.
12:38So I think a lot of policies will have to be made so that, you know, the talented kids,
12:42at least in the grassroot level, you give them that access to play and not put restrictions
12:47on the kids.
12:48If you're talented, you're not from there to that, then you're trying to cut a lot of
12:52kids to stop playing football.
12:54So which is very, very unfortunate.
12:55But the question is, you're part of the technical committee of All India Football Federation.
12:59I'm not part of the technical committee.
13:00I was there.
13:01I've resigned because of certain things that I don't want to go into detail right now.
13:05That's what we don't want you to do.
13:06We don't want you to resign from politics or AIFF.
13:09How do we fix this issue?
13:10Again, see, again, we, you know, I, everybody is aware that I fought an election for All
13:18India Football Federation.
13:19I wanted to fight it purposely because Kalyan, obviously, he's a junior footballer, I know
13:23him very well.
13:24I purposely wanted to fight because, if you look at Indian Football Federation elections,
13:31Mr. Das Munshi was there, he ran the federation for 25 years, no elections.
13:36After that, Mr. Praful Patel came in, 20 years, no elections.
13:40You know, for the last 40 years, Indian football had never had an election.
13:44We never knew who's there, who's coming in, what are the elections happening.
13:47Obviously, I'm not saying they didn't do bad.
13:49They did really well for football.
13:50Mr. Das Munshi really contributed so much.
13:52Mr. Praful, I think, has done so good for football, making it professionalism, brought
13:58ISL to it.
13:59I wanted to fight it, obviously, I was fighting against the entire system to it.
14:04But it's important when, you know, you have a government backup or anything, you need
14:09to bring in the right people.
14:11The government obviously wants sportsperson to come into federation.
14:13We've got a Supreme Court case going on as well.
14:17And it's great to see that central government is pushing a lot of sportsperson to come into
14:21the federations and associations.
14:24But at the same time, when you back it up, you need to bring in players with that credibility,
14:29experience, to make sure that your sport or your, you know, your association or your federation
14:34grows.
14:35I think with Kalyan, we obviously now, a lot of people who's helped during that time in
14:41the government are regretting what, how disastrous it has been.
14:44From 95 ranking, we've gone on to 130.
14:48And I think it's been one after controversy or the other.
14:52So it's very unfortunate that's happened.
14:54And now we are hearing that our national coach, who's just been put in for last three months,
15:00is planned to resign after certain matches, which is very, very unfortunate.
15:04So I think we need to get in right people.
15:06There are a lot of sportsperson who are great, who can do, who can help.
15:10And I strongly feel a lot of our iconic sportsperson have to speak out for the benefit of the sports.
15:17And I feel sad sometimes, you know, people, great cricketers, I don't want to take the
15:22names out.
15:23But, you know, there have been a lot of things that they can contribute positively to speak
15:27out for the benefit of Indian sports, they choose to stay silent.
15:30That is sometimes which is not not the right thing.
15:33So that's why for me, if I have to respect any sportsperson and my idol would be Dhanraj
15:38Pillai, because he's been one of the legend.
15:40But at the same time, I've seen him play, I've been in the Asian Games camp with him.
15:45But whenever he felt that any sports, any hockey player or any other sportsperson has
15:49been getting injustice, I think he's always stood there and spoke about it.
15:54So I think that is what we need.
15:55Because if the elite sportsperson who's seen the world, who's been to Olympics, who's been
16:00to Asian Games, who's had that experience, don't come back and speak and say, we need
16:05this kind of changes for sports to grow, then who's going to speak?
16:08A village sportsperson who plays in a district or a village is never going to speak.
16:13So these guys will have to speak for the development, not to criticize the state or a department
16:18or a government, but for the positive changes, if these guys won't speak, who's going to
16:22speak and who's going to change Indian sports?
16:24And then we're always, after every Olympic, we're saying, kya hogaya ek hi medal jeeta,
16:28itna kam jeeta.
16:29I think that is where we need to change it.
16:31I must compliment him at least for speaking out, because a lot of other sportsmen don't
16:36do that.
16:37I'll get back to the grassroot program.
16:39But before that, one final question on Indian football.
16:43Because most other sport, you see them progress.
16:45The state of Indian football has been such that we used to be sub-100 in the 90s when
16:50Baichung was playing.
16:52You've gone out of 100.
16:54The last time you were sub-100 in the ranking was 2017.
16:57You're sitting at 127.
16:59Most countries improve, we are only getting worse with time.
17:02The moot question is, will the people sitting here and you and I, in our lifetime, ever
17:08see India play a FIFA World Cup?
17:11Because we're going back, not forward.
17:13You never know.
17:14I think in life, if North Korea could play FIFA World Cup, I'm sure India can.
17:19And good thing is, FIFA has increased the number of World Cup participating teams from
17:26I think 32 to maybe 64.
17:30The difficult part for India was because Asia has got 60-plus countries.
17:35We only get four quotas from Asia to qualify for the World Cup.
17:38And those four quotas are taken by Japan, Korea, Australia, by the way, plays in Asia
17:42for the qualifying.
17:43So Australia takes one.
17:44So we've got only one left.
17:45That's always taken by Iran or Saudi.
17:48So it becomes impossible for a country like India, or even including China as well.
17:52China has been trying to play World Cup.
17:53They have not been able to play because China today is the biggest investor in football
17:58in the world.
17:59The amount of investment they've done for the infrastructure, youth development is the
18:03highest in the world.
18:05They have not been able to play.
18:07So the competition levels are much, much more challenging.
18:09But yes, I think we need the right generation of players, seven, eight of them, to be born
18:14around the same time.
18:16We need our grassroot football program to be very, very strong, which the kids are getting
18:20to train every day, play every week, competing once in a while, and have good education program
18:25for the coaches.
18:26Because I feel one of the major challenges right now for Indian football is our coaches
18:31has to be educated and trained to coach those footballers.
18:35And that, I think, there's still a huge gap.
18:38And I know a lot of my friends have gone on degree in coaching.
18:42They've got A license, professional license.
18:45But a lot of them, when I speak to them, they're just trying to get the certificate, and which
18:49is very, very unfortunate.
18:51And they're trying to get from somebody easy, senior coaches, nahin iske saath karega toh
18:55mera pass ho jayega, yeh mere sab pehchanta hai.
18:58I think that is not your goal.
18:59I think you need to try and get trained and get certified from highest good quality trainer,
19:06you know, instructor, so that you're learning, when you pass out, you're learning something
19:09and coming in, just not the certificate.
19:11So when you pass out, I think you need to pass out with good knowledge, just not get
19:15the certificate.
19:16So that's where I think coaches education program is one another factor where we need
19:20to really work.
19:21Is there a better chance because I see a lot of women in our audience, is a better chance
19:25of the Indian women's team playing the World Cup ahead of the men's team?
19:28Much, much better chance.
19:29Wow.
19:30I'll tell you why.
19:31Maybe the ladies can show us the way.
19:32No, again, it's the same thing again, for women's also the number of teams have increased.
19:37Good thing with India is, you know, one good thing is, if you look at men's, the Gulf countries
19:44dominate men's football.
19:46You know, they own all the biggest club, PSG is bought by Sheikh from, you know, Dubai,
19:51Qatar Airways have bought Man City.
19:54But when you look at the Gulf countries, women's football is not big.
19:58But men's football, I think is massive there.
20:00So one of the reason why the competitions for women becomes obviously a little better
20:05and more opportunity and more chances is, half, 20 odd countries, I think would not
20:13even participate, no doubt.
20:15But women's football obviously in India is much better ranked than men's football.
20:20But again, coming down to grassroot and the investment and the thing, we don't have a
20:25single women's football academy.
20:28By Chumbutiya football schools is the only one residential football academy for girls
20:32today in India.
20:34But we don't have for girls in that level who goes on to play for, you know, Indian
20:38Women League.
20:39So I think that is where we need to make sure that lot of federations, lot of academies
20:45will have to come and invest in girls' football in that elite level.
20:49So that, you know, your coaches and your training and your competition level is much more higher.
20:53And I feel that women's football has got much, much more better chance to play World Cup
20:59than men's football.
21:01I mean, that's been the case of Indian sport for the last few years, is the women winning
21:06more medal at the Olympics as well.
21:09But, you know, in terms of you said grassroot is another thing that you have to concentrate
21:14on, you have to do a lot of things when it comes to coaching education.
21:18I know that you do a lot through your By Chumbutiya football schools and India, but focusing especially
21:24on Sikkim, what are the steps that you've taken as a sportsperson of repute to ensure
21:30that these little issues are sorted in the state of Sikkim at least?
21:35I think in terms of Sikkim, because our geographical location, the landscape becomes very, very
21:40challenging to really start your own football academy.
21:45In fact, I've just bought 15-20 acres and we are setting up a nice sports excellence
21:51center in Siliguri.
21:52Now, to do that in Sikkim becomes very, very difficult, because first of all to get that
21:57land and then again, you know, the investment in just making a football ground is huge.
22:01So the challenges in Sikkim to create infrastructure is very, very difficult.
22:05I think with Sikkim, I had United Sikkim Football Club, we were the second professional club
22:12from Northeast to qualify for IE League, which is the highest league in India.
22:15Lajong was the first one.
22:18And, you know, through that, because those days ISL wasn't there, and I brought in investment,
22:24but it's very, very difficult to run a football club in that level to play, compete with best
22:28of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, because we don't have corporates there, we don't have
22:32huge sponsors, you know, corporates to sponsor the team.
22:36So I could only manage it for three years.
22:38And during that period, you know, the budget of the club used to go around, because we
22:42are playing the highest league competing with Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and the big clubs
22:45around India.
22:46Our budget was around three to four CR and obviously other big clubs were huge.
22:51Even to raise three, four CR for an entire one year was a nightmare for me to really
22:57do it.
22:58So I did it for four years, and then just could not sustain it.
23:02So that was one of the big challenges.
23:03So I think with Sikkim, what we can do is we can, you know, have a great with government,
23:08I think has been doing a lot of promoting a lot of sports throughout our CM has been
23:12very sports loving person.
23:15But at the same time with Sikkim, what personally I think to invest and bring it like what I've
23:19invested in, in Silguri or other place becomes challenging in Sikkim.
23:25We had a tie up with Academy when United Sikkim was playing in the league.
23:29And that was the time, I think a lot of the Academy players got that exposure to compete
23:33with some of the best players across India.
23:35And one of the boy went on to play for under 17 World Cup, Komal Tuttle during that time.
23:41And that was the same time when United Sikkim had a tie up with Sports Academy.
23:45And he represented United Sikkim in under 13 tournament.
23:48And that's where Federation Academy picked him up from there.
23:51And then within two years went on to play for under 17 India.
23:54He was the first.
23:55So I think those kind of initiative has to be done.
23:58I think with Sikkim, what is happening is there's a huge interest with sports and football.
24:02Now we have to differentiate between the festival because we take it everything as a festival.
24:07There's a football tournament in my village.
24:09It becomes a festival in my village in Tingitam with cultural program.
24:12That is great.
24:13But at the same time, we, as I said earlier, we need to have a parallel development programs
24:18going on with the schools in villages within different parts.
24:21That is where I think we'll have to work on it because I think we've got huge talent just
24:26not in football but other fields.
24:27Archery is one of them.
24:28Tarundeep has gone on to play for India in Olympics.
24:31And there are other sports.
24:32Boxing, I think, has got great future.
24:35So that is something which I think we can collaborate and work together for making sure
24:40that football and other sports really improve.
24:43We're running out of time.
24:44But one final question.
24:45Before that, you heard the story of United Sikkim that Baicheng mentioned.
24:51Again, coming to United Sikkim, so when United Sikkim qualified for the I-League, we had
24:57only one or two Sikkimese footballers playing in the highest league in I-League.
25:02When United Sikkim qualified, we assigned 30 member players.
25:06Out of 30, 20 players were from Sikkim.
25:09So within a year, you had 16 to 20 players of Sikkimese players playing in the highest league.
25:17Today, ISL, I think we've got only four or five Sikkimese players playing.
25:20But once you have a team playing I-League and ISL, then your number of players playing
25:25in that highest league just goes up.
25:28And that is what we...
25:29But again, to sustain it is a big, big challenge there.
25:33That's what my request here was, if there are any corporate bigwigs, marketing or sales
25:38geniuses, maybe touch base with Baicheng after he's done.
25:42Maybe revive United Sikkim.
25:44Who knows where from those 30 players we get even more.
25:47That answers the question of where do we get more Baichengs from.
25:50Final question, Baicheng, apart from the technical difficulties that you are facing and things
25:56that can be done better to make Sikkim a sporting hub, the Chief Minister was here.
26:01You said that he loves sport as well.
26:04If you had to send out a message to the people of Sikkim, to the Chief Minister of things
26:08that can be done, maybe, I don't know, combine tourism with sports, various things that you
26:12could think of out of the box, that could make Sikkim a sporting destination for the
26:17rest of the country.
26:18I think if you're looking at future of Sikkim, apart from sports, obviously sports, I think
26:23we need to get a good structure right.
26:26I think Sikkimese people are very sports loving.
26:28We've got a great government that really encourages sports.
26:31But we should differentiate between sports, having just a festival for one week to 10
26:35days, and have a parallel development program, which is going on for a longer period of time
26:39and getting that platform to compete and train with good coaches is very, very important.
26:44Second thing, few things, I think there are a lot of things which I feel we can do it
26:47in Sikkim, but I would say take three points from there for future of Sikkim, not in sports
26:53but other fields.
26:54I think first thing for Sikkim now, going forward, I think we need to look into sustainable
26:59development.
27:00I just heard Professor Lamasar saying about green Sikkim.
27:04I think that is where we need to go in.
27:07We can't spoil Sikkim, which is green, beautiful.
27:11In the name of development, we can't really destroy it.
27:14You know, today, sadly, there are 40 plus pharmaceutical companies coming in.
27:19We've got 30 plus universities in Sikkim.
27:23Sikkim is a 6.2 lakh people.
27:26You know, it's very important that we bring in development on a very sustainable way.
27:31In the name of development, we can't destroy our forest, we can't destroy our culture,
27:35our identity, which is very, very important.
27:37I think there's going to be huge influx.
27:39So I think that is where we need to really go and make sure that, you know, our development
27:43is through sustainable development.
27:45Another thing I would say is, I think Sikkim today, in terms of birth ratio, I think we
27:52are, fertility rate, we are very, very low.
27:55We are just 1.1, which is one of the lowest in India.
27:59What scares us is because of fertility rate for all the Sikkimese, we've got three communities,
28:04the Bhutia, Lepchas and Nipalis.
28:05For us in Sikkim, we've got the lowest fertility rate today in India.
28:10So what happens is, we might start losing our culture and identity with that, because
28:15demography is going to change, or through development, we have a lot of influx coming
28:20in.
28:21It's very important for any of us to make sure that our identity and culture is preserved.
28:25Within Sikkimese as well, if you look into Bhutia community, I think we've gone minus
28:30in terms of fertility rate.
28:33It is that bad.
28:34So I think that is where we need to make sure that our culture identity is saved, respecting
28:42obviously country, everybody has to make sure that we are a proud Indian, but at the same
28:46time also make sure that we are proud Sikkimese and respect and save our culture and identity,
28:51which is very, very important.
28:52Third is, I think through sports we can change, because Sikkim again has got a lot of great
28:57things.
28:58We are a very peaceful state.
28:59We are a green state.
29:00We are one of the most developed states per capita.
29:02We are number one, but there are one or two negative sides to it, which is Sikkim is one
29:08of the highest in terms of suicide rate for over a decade now.
29:11It's been there for a very, very long time, and this is where we've really got to tackle
29:16and handle it well, and that can be done through, I think, sports programs.
29:20So no matter we are highest in per capita, we are such a developed state, but somewhere
29:25down the line, our youth today, I think, are committing suicide, and we are number
29:29one in India today in terms of suicide rate, and that is where that challenge is through
29:35sports or through different programs.
29:38We need to make sure that our youths are empowered and they can stand and they can start working
29:44and not try and only make sure that they are spoon-feeded.
29:48So we need to make sure that their talent is utilized, and that can be done through
29:52sports.
29:53So these are the few things, I think, which we have to tackle, but otherwise I think Sikkim
29:56has been one of the biggest examples to a lot of states across India, and as everybody
30:02I've been hearing from morning, we are an organic state.
30:06With organic, obviously, there are a lot of challenges that has come in, because I come
30:10from a farming background.
30:12Once we become organic, our data in government of Sikkim and government of India, our agricultural
30:17production has come down heavily.
30:20We obviously, I did my schooling, my father did my schooling through cardamom cultivation.
30:24He used to, you know, get cardamom, sell it and pay our education.
30:28Today cardamom, we are number one production of cardamom, but somehow through some kind
30:33of thing, you know, we're losing completely.
30:36So I think government will have to do a lot of research to bring back, you know, agriculture.
30:41Through pharmaceutical, that has come so much, we've lost some of the best rice field, which
30:46is some of the most beautiful, you know, paddy fields across Sikkim.
30:50So I think these are the things where we need to make sure our generation is focused in
30:53agriculture, which has been our main source, and tourism.
30:57That's where I think if we can have a sustainable development for Sikkim, would be great.
31:01All right, we're completely out of time.
31:04But these three points really sum up that Baichung is not just a sporting icon, but
31:09a great ambassador for the state of Sikkim, just the way he summed up all the problems
31:13that they're facing.
31:14Thank you so much, Baichung, for taking our time and speaking to us.