Doping In India

26-08-2023

12:06 PM

1 min read

Mains GS-IV: Ethics

What’s in today’s article?

Why in news?
What is World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)?
What is whereabouts clause as mandated by WADA?
What is doping?
Doping in India: Where does India Stand?
Why do so many Indian athletes dope?
What are the existing regulatory frameworks in India?

Why in news?

As per one of the India’s leading newspaper report, Indian gymnastics’ poster girl Dipa Karmakar is under suspension since the second half of 2021 for her failure to honour the whereabouts as mandated by the world anti-doping agency (Wada).
- Dipa had changed the face of gymnastics in India after her ground-breaking fourth-place finish in the women’s vault final at the Rio Olympics 2016
According to this report, she is currently serving a two-year ban for this violation.

What is World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)?

WADA was established in 1999 as an international independent agency to lead a collaborative worldwide movement for doping-free sport.
- It was promoted by the International Olympic Committee.
Its primary role is to develop, harmonize and coordinate anti-doping rules and policies across all sports and countries.
Its key activities include:
- scientific and social science research;
- education; intelligence & investigations;
- development of anti-doping capacity; and
- monitoring of compliance with the World Anti-Doping Program.

What is whereabouts clause as mandated by WADA?

Some athletes, usually those who are part of a Registered Testing Pool (RTP), are required to provide whereabouts information.
This information is used by Anti-Doping Organizations (such as NADA, WADA etc.) to locate athletes for effective out of competition doping control.
If an athlete in the RTP commits three whereabouts failures (which can be a combination of filing failure and/ or missed tests) in a 12-month period, it will constitute an anti-doping rule violation.
In this case, he/she will be sanctioned for a period of ineligibility of 12 to 24 months (first offence) or more for subsequent offences.

What is doping?

Doping refers to the use of banned substances in competitive sports with a primary goal to enhance performance.
- Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) is another term used to for drugs used by athletes to improve their athletic performance.
This can be achieved in broadly four ways – by increasing muscle mass, getting an artificial spike in energy ahead of an event, cutting down on recovery time and masking the effect of other drugs.

Doping in India: Where does India Stand?

In 2022, 62 Indian athletes have been caught doping or in possession of banned substances, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of World Athletics.
- Only Russia has recorded more doping violations than India with 87 athletes receiving punishment.
Ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, five members of the Indian athletic contingent had failed their dope tests.
As many as 152 doping violations were reported in the nation in 2019 – only behind Russia (167) and Italy (157).

Why do so many Indian athletes dope?

A major reason is the athlete wanting to register a big performance on the basis of which they can get jobs or incentives.
The increasing number of privately sponsored, prize-money marathons and cross country runs in India also are a source of doping temptation for athletes.
- There is rarely any stringent dope testing at private competitions, giving athletes a free run.
Corrupt coaches are also one of the reasons.
- The Maharashtra Athletics Association recently banned coach Micky Menezes after it was proved that he was responsible for giving an athlete injections that contained a banned substance.

What are the existing regulatory frameworks in India?

Legislation

In August 2022, Parliament passed the National Anti-Doping Bill, 2022.
The legislation seeks to prohibit athletes, support personnel and other people from engaging in doping in sport.
The bill aims at strengthening anti-doping activities in sports and offer a statutory framework for the functioning of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).

Institution: National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA)

NADA was set up as registered society in November 2005 with a mandate for Dope free sports in India.
- It has now been made a statutory body under National Anti-Doping Act, 2022.
NADA holds regular testing in two different ways.
- The first one is called the in-competition testing, wherein athletes are tested for banned substances during a competition.
- To prevent the practice of doping during an off-season, NADA also organises out-of-competition testing.

Conclusion

India needs to work on a two-pronged strategy of testing as many athletes as it can and educating athletes.
Also, it should focus on launching and interactive awareness campaign and an integrity campaign to make athletes feel responsible.

Q1) Which agency checks doping in India?

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is the national organization responsible for promoting, coordinating, and monitoring the doping control program in sports in all its forms in the country. NADA works towards a vision of ’dope free’ sport in India.

Q2) What drugs are used for doping?

Among the most popular PEDs are anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, erythropoietin (EPO), beta-blockers, stimulants and diuretics.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE_JFWSdO2g