Soldiers in the Making

The year 1991 witnessed the release of the Hindi movie Prahaar directed by a renowned film artist, Mr Nana Patekar. The movie dealt with the unexplored area of a soldier's psyche. It depicted how a soldier's strong desire to root out the evil forces matches his ambition to conquer the enemy on the battlefield. In fact, today, the need to fight off the internal enemy is greater than ever. The last frame of the film showed a multitude of smiling, guileless children, bereft of any vile or anti-social feelings, running together in purity to suggest an optimistic picture of tomorrow's citizens. Inspired by the film, a non-political clarity trust Prahaarhas been trying to create a value based soldiering in the younger generation. Prahaar was founded on January 9, 1994. It comprises ex-servicemen and civilians working together to awaken the society. The main objective of Prahaar is to create a society with an essential military disposition. The trust believes that the basic qualities of a soldier-like discipline, courage, vigilance and patriotism should form the foundation of a society. Prahaar provides training in obstacle crossing so as to make children strong and tough enough to face physical and emotional hurdles in life. It gives training in twentyone kinds of obstacle crossing viz. Tarzan jump, tyre obstacle, double ditch, balance, Tarzan swing, parallel rope along with instructions on various other manoeuvres. It also conducts basic training course in horse-riding. To shape the impressionable minds of schoolchildren in the soldierly mould, Prahaar organises residential and trekking camps during winter and summer vacations. During these camps, children are trained in civil defence. They are also encouraged to participate in various competitions and informative programmes. Children are also taken on visits to different Armed Forces establishments all over the country to acquaint them with the life-style of Armed Forces personnel and their equipment. For the boys and girls having already passed NDA and CDS written examination, Prahaar conducts a fortnight-long training session to prepare them for

interview. Every month, Prahaar conducts two courses to train people in disaster management during sudden calamities, either natural or man-made. During these courses skills in, rescue from a height, parallel rope, flying box, flying chair knot, transportation of casualty and first-aid are taught. To satisfy the longing for martial arts amongst youngsters, Prahaar gives training in these self-defence arts. It adds a new dimension to its many-faceted objective by establishing Prahaar Sainik Vidyalaya in association with a prominent educational institution. It is a non-residential, integrated military school starting from class five. The objective is to make each and every child bold, dynamic and mentally robust with a strong personality. - Lt Col (Retd) SW Deshpande