Indian Archery's power couple Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das and other Olympians and Arjuna Awardees of Bengal trooped into the Sports Authority of India's Kolkata Regional Centre on Sunday to participate in a very special event - the final edition of the Fit India Sundays on Cycle of 2025.
The year-end special edition, which was the 54th edition of the Fit India Sundays on Cycle, witnessed a vibrant, carnival-like celebration as nearly 1,500 citizens gathered at the Sports Authority of India centre in Kolkata. The event witnessed an unprecedented turnout of enthusiastic cyclists, including athletes, corporate professionals, students, CISF jawans, insurance company employees, who were the special partners of this edition, and people of all age
groups, transforming the venue into a festival of movement, music and community spirit.
The mega event in Kolkata was flagged off by Olympians and Arjuna Awardees Deepika Kumari, Joydeep Karmakar and Mangal Singh Champia, setting the tone for a power-packed winter morning dedicated to fitness and active living. Also present were Arjuna Awardees Atanu Das, Rahul Banerjee, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Susmita Singha Roy.
Padma Shri and Arjuna Awardee Deepika Kumari underlined the importance of everyday fitness, saying that energy and strength are essential not only for sport but for personal life as well, and that fitness should be practised daily and not limited to just one Sunday. "We have to do this every day and I'm so happy to see over 1500 people join in today," said Deepika.
Joydeep Karmakar highlighted how initiatives like Sundays on Cycle are helping people move away from excessive screen time and adopt disciplined fitness habits. "A transformation starts with our simple behaviours - everyone here has turned their attention from phones and have become busy with their cycles," said the former shooter.
"Everything falls in place when we get disciplined about fitness. It's a good excuse for us to be here today, joining amidst this winter chill. In the last one year, over 20 lakh people nationwide have joined in, and from now on, this movement will become even bigger," Joydeep, fourth-place finisher at the 2012 Olympics, added.
Alongside cycling, participants enjoyed high-energy Zumba sessions, mellifluous Bengali folk music, captivating yoga performances, rope-skipping demonstrations and a host of fitness activities that kept the energy levels high amidst the winter chill.
Dronacharya Awardee Dr. Kuntal Roy thanked the Sports Authority of India and the Fit India programme, stressing that mental and physical fitness together shape one's entire life. "I thank SAI and the Fit India program for this initiative. The concept of fitness is the key of life. Mental and physical fitness rules our whole life. Therefore, we have to keep ourselves fit through various programs on fitness like Sundays on Cycle," the former athletics chief coach at SAI, added.
During the event, 10 local cycling clubs as well as the state cycling champions were felicitated, including Fit India ambassadors and champions including Kanthi Dutt, Garima Diwakar, Manas Saha, and Raima Majumder.
Apart from Kolkata, events were simultaneously held across 10000 locations across the length and breadth of the country, organised at the Sports Authority of India and Khelo India centres. SAI Training centres in Ludhiana, Rajnandgaon, Dharamsala, Kokrajhar, Hazaribagh, Golaghat, and more, organised these events. In Bikaner, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, was also present during the Cycle rally.
Launched in December 2024 by Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Fit India Sundays on Cycle has steadily evolved into a people-driven movement, encouraging citizens to make fitness a part of their weekly routine while also promoting cleaner and greener mobility. So far, over 20 lakh people have joined in from more than 2 lakh locations.
(An Excerpt from Agency)
