Six sailors from Telangana have been recruited into the Naval and Armed forces, while still pursuing their schooling.
One of the sailors named Durga Prasad, currently no. 2 in national sailors’ ranking would represent India at an International Sailing Championship in July 2017. Prasad, currently in class 10, was encouraged to pursue sailing by his school’s principal and was extremely happy to represent India at the international level.
Appreciating Prasad, the president and owner of the Yacht Club Suheim Sheik, said, “He is selected into the Navy, so once he comes back, he will become a Naval officer. We pretty much handed him over to the country in good shape.”
Sheikh asserted that six students from the club have been recruited in the Indian Army and Navy.
“Four have been selected in the Navy and two in the Army. They will continue to sail as they are at the national level. Five of our kids got into national squad,” he added.
Mehbooba, a sailor from Hyderabad studying in Class 9 in Government Girls High school currently ranked 40 at the national level, faced many hurdles during the initial phase of her career. Her teachers convinced her family for allowing her to pursue this career.
Sachin, whose parents work as labourers in small-scale industries, started training for sailing when he was in Class 5. He said, “I want to become a Navy officer in future and recently, I went through selection and got into the Naval force.”
Under a programme called ‘Dignity through Sports‘ children of 11-12 year age group from the state are getting trained in sailing. Most of the children inducted in the program come from Social Welfare and Minorities schools in Vikarabad and Pargi. The camp has a strength of 50 in which 18 are girls.