MADHYA PRADESH: After his dream to serve in the Indian Army failed to take flight, medium and long-distance runner Uday Bilwal joined the MP government’s tribal affairs department as a social sciences and Hindi teacher in 1999. But his sense of duty and dedication were far from snuffed out; neither were his efforts to instill new blood in national service.
Over the past decade, the 45-year-old, posted as superintendent of Government Boys Hostel in his native Jhabua district, has guided over 400 tribal youths to be inducted into the Army, state police and central paramilitary forces.
“I competed in 1,500 and 5,000-metre events during my school days, dreaming of joining the Indian Army to serve the nation. But destiny had something else in store. Being unable to fulfil my dream, I joined the tribal affairs department as a primary school teacher,” Bilwal recounted.
Then, in 2013-14, Bilwal happened upon some tribal youngsters preparing to join the Army and state police force. “They would clear the written test, but lacked the professional guidance to clear the physical proficiency test, which comprises middle-distance running, shot put and long jump. The best coaching centres were in Indore, Bhopal and the other big cities, but most of those boys and girls didn’t have the money or resources to travel to and from Indore (150 km from Jhabua),” he said.
Perhaps seeing a reflection of his former self in these hapless youth, the former runner launched a free of cost ‘Soldiers Physical Group’ in Jhabua with ten promising youngsters – one of whom, Harish Goyal (a former national level half-marathoner), is a key part of the training apparatus today.
The Government Shahid Chandrashekhar Azad PG College in the tribal-dominated western MP district has been the ideal training ground for the training programme for promising youth since 2015.
Six days a week, the free physical training group supervised by Bilwal, focusses on enhancing fitness, stamina as well as athletic abilities necessary to clear the physical proficiency test for induction into the Army, para forces and state police services.
“The coaching involves running for six days, including a 10-km hill run every Saturday, to improve stamina. Every Monday, tests are conducted to ascertain the improvement of the trainees in all the categories, 1,600 and 800-metre runs, shot put and long jump. Based on their performance in these tests, further efforts are put into improving individual outputs. I regularly watch videos of sports training camps as well as military and commando training programmes to further improve my coaching and strengthen our programme in Jhabua,” the resolute runner relays.
However, it’s not merely the aspect of physical training that Bilwal has been focussing on since last ten years. He has also taken care of ensuring proper nourishment and every specific need of those youngsters, most of whom hail from families with rather meagre means.
“There have been trainees who couldn’t even afford to buy their own shoes; but I never allowed it to become their limitation. I funded proper shoes for them. Today, many of them have done us proud by cracking the Army recruitment exercise,” Bilwal says, beaming with pride as he recounted the success of his training programme.
More than 25 youngsters, not only from Jhabua but also adjoining Alirajpur district, are now serving the Indian Army, deployed across the nation – Ladakh, Jammu, Jailsalmer Gurdaspur and Gujarat.
The 25-odd jawans who are product of Bilwal’s free physical coaching include two para commandos, the first from the twin tribal districts to be inducted into the special forces.Till date, 410 selections have been a result of Bilwal’s training programme.
Among his pupils, Magan Mori, hailing from Bori area of Alirajpur district, accredits nearly the entirety of his success to his ‘Guru’.
“He is not just my Guru; he is God to me. I come from a very poor agrarian family. They could not afford to send me to any professional coaching to support my dream of joining the MP police force. It was Bilwal Sir who guided me; supporting me in every possible way to clear the police constable recruitment in the very first attempt. The greater part of my success is due to Sir; very little is my own doing,” says Magan, who is currently posted in the Maoist-affected Balaghat district.
Two other promising products of Bilwal’s free coaching to have successfully cleared the state police constable recruitment in 2022 include Renuka and Chandan Hathila, presently posted in Bhopal and Singrauli districts respectively.
“I’m the second-youngest among six sisters and three brothers. My family in Jhabua district never dreamt of any of their children becoming a government servant. But guided by Sir, I not only succeeded in cracking the police recruitment in 2022, but since then have saved enough money to build a ‘pucca’ house for my family and repay my parents’ loan worth `1.5 lakh.”
But it’s not just Army, paramilitary and police recruitment tests which are on Bilwal’s mind. His efforts are also directed at shaping the sports careers of these promising teenagers. One of his pupils Prem Bhabhar represented Madhya Pradesh in a national school -level Kabaddi tourney, while college-goer Manish Shingar is shaping up to be a promising archer. Class X student Lakhan Bhura is emerging as a promising handball player.
“Sports will make these promising teenagers not just champions, but will fetch them extra weightage points for future Indian Army, para-military and police selections,” Bilwal said pragmatically..
Not having charged a single penny from any of his 1,000-plus young trainees in the past decade, Bilwal says he gets his ‘Guru Dakshina’ whenever one of his trainees emerges successful, realising their ambitions and serving the nation. “When they come home on leaves, many of them meet me before meeting their parents. There couldn’t be a greater Guru Dakshina than this,” says Bilwal,