Bhadrak: He is not only serving the motherland as an army jawan, but also selflessly motivating and helping other youths in his locality to join the Indian Army. Meet Jyotirmay Pandav of Arasa village in Tihidi block of Bhadrak district who has so far trained at least 22 youths to bag army jobs.
Pandav, who is currently serving in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), has virtually turned his homeland into an army village. With an aim that each family in the village should produce at least one army jawan, Pandav has not just been assiduously transforming the local youth community for the good but also ensuring that nobody in the village remains unemployed.
Whenever he comes to home on leave, Pandav dedicates his entire time to prepare the aspiring youths of his village and neighbouring areas for military jobs.
The ITBP jawan has been giving training to hundreds of youths free of cost by setting up an outfit named Jeevan Jyoti Sangathan. Established at Mukundapur ground five years back, more than 300 youths are currently undergoing training in the camp every day.
Various forms of training like running, long jump, high jump, rope climbing and swimming and other physical exercises are being imparted to youths to make them ready for career in defence forces.
“Running and other physical training are being imparted here. Besides, training is given to crack the army recruitment examinations,” said Smurtiranjan Sahu, an army aspirant.
Manoj Sethi, another candidate, said, “Pandav sir imparts us very useful training and most youths who undergo preparation here generally do not disqualify in the physical test. Many of my friends have already bagged jobs in military forces and I am also confident to bag a post in the army in coming days.”
After witnessing the noble work of Pandav, many other army personnel of the region have also come forward and joined hands with him in providing training to the aspiring youths. In order to help the youths to mentally prepare for the army recruitment, mock recruitment drive is also being organised every year.
"Many youths fail in the written test while some others could not qualify the running test. In the mega recruitment rally, the youths often become hopeless as they see a large number of candidates turning up for the enrolment drive. To encourage them and strengthen their willpower, we started giving them training five years back. As many as 22 youths from this village have joined the Indian army in the last five years,” Pandav said.