National Games inaugurated in Kerala
"It is high time we promote sports in a systemic and serious manner not just for winning medals in international competitions but to ensure better health of our youth. We shall not forget that our country has the largest number of youth in the world. If they are not healthy, alert and active, it will have serious implications," Naidu said.
"The best way of promoting the culture of sports among the youth is to catch them young and inculcate among them the love for sports. It needs to be done through effective awareness campaign about the advantage of sports and physical activity and also through necessary incentives," he said.
Highlighting the troubles faced by sports persons in India, he said: "School and college curriculum should be recast with at least 10% weightage for sports, quotas in admission for students who does well in different sports, reservation in jobs etc. I am sorry to note that several of our medal winners end up as ticket collectors in trains and clerks. This is no way to promote sports. "
The 15-day sporting event will see a total 11,641 participants including 7744 athletes competing, to clinch 365 Gold Medals and equal number of Silver Medal and 477 Bronze Medals.
A total of 33 sports disciplines will be played in the National Games this year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier congratulated the athletes and tweeted: "My best wishes to all athletes participating in the 35th National Games that commence today in Kerala. http://www.kerala2015.com/ ."
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