new delhi the government has decided to spend big on womens sports in india buoyed by the success of indias female athletes on the global sporting stage over the years especially at the multisport events including the olympics the government has earmarked a fund of rs 1503 crore exclusively to conduct the khelo india womens leagues across nine disciplines for the next four years to identify new talentsthe funds will include cash prizes amounting to a total of rs 423 crore which will be directly released to the respective national sports federations nsfs for the purpose of conducting the leaguestoi has learnt that the sports ministry has approved proposals for hosting agegroup tournaments for women across nine disciplines under the khelo india scheme these disciplines include hockey archery weightlifting cycling boxing swimming wrestling volleyball and judo more than 23000 female athletes from across the country are set for competitionthe recentlyconcluded womens hockey league in the under21 category in lucknow was first of such initiatives and similar leagues across the senior junior youth and cadet categories will take place in other sports as well the khelo india womens hockey league in the under16 category has also been given a goahead by the ministry which will be held across new delhi uttar pradesh and odisha over three phases in august october and december respectivelypiyush kumar dubey coach of the mens hockey team which won the bronze medal at the tokyo olympics said that the move will give further impetus to womens sports in indiathese leagues will have a tremendous impact in three ways firstly it will set up a competitive environment for the young girls participating and give them a platform to battle pressure and their fearsecondly the coaches will get to assess their students on how they perform in competitive tournaments away from practice said dubey thirdly these leagues will help in the longterm development of the p layers and build on the success our womens team achieved in tokyo last year he added