Love India? Serve Armed Forces

KOCHI: To attract more youth to join Indian Armed Forces, the State Sainik Welfare Department has come up with a project titled ‘Love India? Save Future’.
Launched in September 2011, the programme mainly involves seminars that deal with the benefits and advantages of Indian Armed Forces.
The steep fall in the number of students opting for Indian Armed Forces had forced the department to evolve such a project.
The number of candidates from Kerala getting selected for various Indian Armed Forces institutions like the National Defence Academy, Naval Academy, Indian Military Academy and Air Force Academy is decreasing drastically,” said K K Govindan Nair, Director, Department of Sainik Welfare, Thiruvananthapuram.
“This has prompted us to enunciate a project which will have a direct access to the students,” he said.
He said it was disappointing that the Indian Armed Forces is not able to lure the youth to serve the country. The project chalked out by the Sainik Welfare Department focuses on Plus-Two students. As more students have to be brought under the purview of the project, it is being organised in association with the Department of Higher Secondary Education, he said.
The seminars deal with the pattern of the various armed forces examinations, especially the National Defence Academy (NDA) examination. It also comprises counselling classes on how to face an interview,” he said.
So far, the department has conducted seminars at 30 venues. Girls as well as the students from tribal communities are given special focus. The Sainik Department has also prepared a CD which underlines the advantages of being in Armed Forces.
“As many as 600 CDs have been distributed to the Career Guidance and Adolescent Counselling units of the Higher Secondary Department,” said E Sreekumar, coordinator of ‘Love India? Save Future’ project.
Sreekumar said the response from students and schools was overwhelming after the first phase of the programme.The NDA examination is conducted twice a year. The applications from Kerala for NDA examinations for April-May, 2011 were 350. It has now been increased to 1216,”  he said. Sreekumar said that in the next phase, the project would soon go to the panchayat level so that each and every student in the remote area can reap its benefits.