kids with intellectual disability can be brought into mainstream through sports says air marshal retd denzil keelorair marshal retd denzil keelor ceo of special olympics bharat and the highest decorated officer said sports education is gaining an importance as the government has launched various programmes to create awareness of its importancetalking to education times keelor said he has been working for the welfare of sportsperson for over a decade but his association with special olympics bharat was purely a coincidenceafter my retirement i worked as a president of young mens christian association ymca for 10 years when the special olympics organisation approached me i rejected the offer but considered it after realising its relevance i was asked to work only for a year but i have been associated with them since thenhe adds i wanted to strengthen the rural students so we started working at district level at present 25 of children with intellectual disabilities are being trained by us and we hold an eminent place at global levelthe idea of sports in the country was initially to train the best and leave the rest but our view was different we trained kids with intellectual disability to bring them into mainstream we believe sports should be used as a medium to promote inclusive educationsince the sports education in the country is changing it is important to bring in reforms at various levels the trend has changed as the government has realised that we have over 60 young population the youth can change the future of sports in indiakeelor informs earlier sports as a sector never received money from the government but now the scene is encouraging over rs 219635 crore was allocated to sports in this years budget the khelo india programme is also a step towards sports promotionhe further says that the country will take around a decade to make a mark at global level start with local programmes in schools train coaches and kids and include special kids which will change the scenario