The Army has decided to have a targeted approach for the rehabilitation of battle-injured and other casualty soldiers and train them at their world-class facilities for Paralympics games depending on their individual excellence in nine sporting event.

Way back in 2018, the then-Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Service, Lt Gen Bipin Puri, had stated that nearly 200 personnel become disabled every year due to various injuries received on duty.

At the just-held Army Commanders’ Conference, the top brass agreed to harness the “indomitable spirit and ‘never-say-die’ attitude of the soldiers who are battle and physical casualties,” the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated on Thursday. Motivated soldiers will be selected for paralympic events by training them at Army Sports and Mission Olympic Nodes (ASMON) in nine sporting events, the Ministry pointed out.

Scouting of deserving personnel for rehabilitation will happen in a targeted approach.

“There are a large number of combat-hardened soldiers who have become ‘Battle Casualties’ in the process of undertaking their duties. Also, there are a number of cases of non-fatal accidental causalities leaving out soldiers invalidated for active duties. These soldiers are still willing and have the drive to undertake new challenges, if provided, with appropriate opportunities,” said Army sources.

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Some of these differently-abled soldiers also have remarkable shooting acumen, which may be honed for paralympic events, observed Army sources. Also, there would be sportspersons with suitable psychological parameters and interest in athletics, rowing, archery, swimming, shooting, para lifting, kayaking, and canoeing, they added.

The volunteers will undergo screening and selected individuals will be retained at Mission Olympics facilities -- Army Marksmanship Unit (Shooting), Mhow, Army Paralympic Nodea, Kirkee, and Army Rowing Node, Pune. These facilities have the best coaches, including from abroad, physiotherapists, and psychologists.

The Army has produced international stars like javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. Even among the able-bodied, Havildar Soman Rana is an international para-athlete and stands second in world rankings in his category of shot put. Trained at Paralympic Node, BEG and Centre, Kirkee since 2017, he was also selected for the Tokyo Paralympics 2020.

Two paraplegic soldiers too had won medals at a 2021 world games.

Since 2017, para-athletes of the Army have won 28 international medals and 60 national medals. According to information shared by the Ministry last year, they represented and won medals for India in Asian Para Games, World Military Games, World Para Championship, and World Grand Prix events.

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