‘Gujarat youth joined Army in record numbers’

Colonel Sharma said: “These youths have been recruited from all over Gujarat in the past 16 months and are at present undergoing training at different places across the country. To my knowledge this is the highest number of yearly recruitments from Gujarat till date.”

The commendable increase in the number of Gujarati youths opting for the Indian Army as a career option is being considered by many as the outcome of the extra effort by the Army to market itself among the youth. An economically well-off Gujarat has negligible representation in the defence services. Unlike other states,there is not even a single Army regiment from the state.

A total of five Army recruitment rallies were held at different places in the state last year. Two of these were held at Ahmedabad,while the other three were held at Bharuch,Anand and Godhra.

Colonel Sharma said that the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) notebooks this year will have Indian Army advertisements.

“With the help of the Gujarat Pathya Pustak Mandal,we have already printed Indian Army advertisements on more than 2.5 lakh notebooks. We are working on getting the same done on the Class X and XII textbooks soon,” he said.

He also referred to some reported instances of several ignorant youth being duped by touts,who claim to have ‘connections’ with recruiters in such rallies.

He said: “I want the media to help me alert the youths about such agents and touts. The Indian Army recruits people on the basis of merit and not through touts.”