The desire to serve the nation is an ambition of number of athletes who participated at the 2nd South Asian Federation (SAF) Junior Athletics Championships held from November 10 to 12 in Ranchi. Be it an Afghani, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali or Maldivian.
Though all of them are school or college students at present but this strong feeling of serving the nation as an Army, Navy, Air Force or Police personnel can clearly be noticed through their words. Given a chance they were ready to get into any of the forces. The eligibility age is obviously a condition in this matter.
“like senior athletes, the junior athletes grabbing international fame are ready to join either police or any of the forces. It is a joy to see that the response is overwhelming from both the genders. We already have two girls laxmi Pandey and Bishwarupa Budha in our team, working in Nepal Army. Coincidently, Nepal also follows sports quota jobs for athletes from the age of 18 years similar to India,” Dhaniram Chaudhary, coach of Nepal team said.
Bangladeshi female athletes Asma Haque and Shirin Akhtar said, “Navy and Army give an opportunity to show our sports skills along with the patriotic feel. It is great to feel. We seek to join any of these as Officers.” “Our athletes are given recognition in Army, Navy and Air Force besides teaching jobs. It has become a tradition. It would be a benefit following this tradition for many youngsters like us. After all, getting absorbed in forces is a matter of choice,” said Sri lanka’s junior men team captain Supun Viraj Randeniya.
A bit different was the opinion of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Maldives teams. “Our nation gives adequate chance to all the budding sportspersons in joining the government departments, not restricted to defence forces. After completing my basic education, I would definitely try to join any of the government department,” said Abaid Ali, a Pakistani athlete. Supporting Ali’s view, Afghanistan’s male athlete Faisal Hotak said, “We are no more a backward nation. Government’s contribution to our present senior and junior players is well appreciated. So, being a government employee will be my fortune.”
“Joining government jobs is mostly from the male genre. The ratio of females is comparatively less,” said Naim, an athlete of Maldives. Few Indian junior female athletes however expressed their interest in government as well as private jobs. A female player on the condition of anonymity said, “The government jobs like that given in Railways and Police does prevail among our team mates. But, craze for private sectors jobs is also a preference for many of us.”