Indian Army have the planning to form Army Girls Sports Company (AGSC) in two locations,within its Centre of Excellence (COE) nodes at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh and Pune to find and groom new talent, in sync with the country’s vision of “women empowerment” and demonstration of “Nari Shakti”. The Army is raising the companies (AGSC) in a phased manner it is expected to come in effect from April 2024. The two locations — Army Marksmanship Unit, Mhow and Army Sports Institute, Pune have been selected for the AGSCs as they have world-class training infrastructure, sports medicine centres, rehabilitation facilities and related coaching facilities.
The company will be focusing to train the young girls in shooting, archery, athletics, boxing and weightlifting. Sources in the Army also told, “These units will identify young talent, provide them with formal education apart from other administrative requirements and will train them to be ‘champions’ in their respective sporting discipline.” The girls, who will undergo the training at the Army’s COEs, will also be eligible to be absorbed into the forces. They can directly enter non-commissioned officers and junior commissioned officers, apart from Agniveers.
This step is taken to support the India’s sports policy to achieve more podium finishes at the Olympics. The Army officials stated that the policy decision is a good step taken in the right direction and will help the force and the nation to prepare the right talent for the future. It will also further lead to the creation of a bigger pool of talented young sportswomen from remote areas of India, who aspire to achieve glory for India at Olympics.
This young talent will also get benefit from the senior Army teams/athletes, who are also being trained at these locations.
161
