Eighteen-year-old J. Ramkumar of Madurai is proud to be a fourth generation soldier.
“Inspired by my father I wanted to become a soldier from the time I was in primary school,” he said. He is elated to follow the footsteps of his father S. Jayaram (45), grandfather R. Subramani and great-grandfather Ramasamy.
He is among the 547 soldiers who successfully made it to the Army and started the nine-month training in centres across the country from March 17 to 26, from the Army Recruiting Office (ARO) Coimbatore.
On Wednesday, Coimbatore Corporation Mayor P. Rajkumar congratulated the soldier recruits and greeted their parents for sending their wards to join the army.
The recruits are among nearly 34,400 candidates from the 11 districts in Western Tamil Nadu under ARO, Coimbatore, who participated in the recruitment rally at Erode and Dindigul in September and December 2014.
A.Dinesh Kumar (19), Dindigul who is also following the footsteps of his father, said he missed his father as a school goer. “But, I liked his service to the country,” he said. His father P. Arumugam (48) - a soldier from 1986-2012 - came to send off his son.
Motivation
Recruits like P. Muthuraj (19), Dindigul, and M. Bhuvaneshwaran (21), Krishnagiri, were motivated by their siblings P. Rajkumar (22) and M. Muthu (23).
Muthuraj said six of his friends in Pulipatti village are soldiers, while Bhuvaneshwaran recalled that 14 persons from his street at Vadamangalam village are soldiers.
S. Dinesh (21) a B.Sc. Electronics and Communication graduate of Madurai and R. Selvendran (21) a B.A. History graduate of Theni were in the NCC. They tried their best to become army officers, but could not succeed due to tough competition. They want to give a try once again by gaining entry as soldiers.
Some recruits admitted that they became soldiers for job security.
Colonel H. Praveen, Director (Recruiting), ARO, Coimbatore, said that like the yester years this year too more youth of Madurai, Theni and Dindigul have joined the army in large numbers from the districts under ARO in Coimbatore.
“Enthusiasm is poor from Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Namakkal, Erode and The Nilgiris,” he said and opined that it could be due to urbanisation and poor awareness on the prospects in joining the Army.
The Colonel added that efforts will be taken to create awareness in these places and motivate more persons to join the army.
Enthusiasm is poor from Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Namakkal, Erode and The Nilgiris possibly due to urbanisation and poor awareness about the prospects of
joining the Army
