In an attempt to rope in more youngsters into its fold the National Cadet Corps (NCC) would be raising its cadet strength to 15 lakh from the current level of 13 lakh cadets, said NCC, Director General, Lt Gen Prakash S Chaudhary.
Speaking to reporters in the sidelines of the All IndiaVayu Sainik Camp-2007, on Thursday Lt Gen Chaudhary, said that NCC which has its presence in 607 districts across the country will soon be increasing its cadet strength to 15 lakh, as there were a large number of young boys and girls waiting to join the NCC. He added that there is an all-out effort from NCC to increase the strength of girl cadets from the present 22 per cent to 33 per cent.
“ Of the 8,000 schools and colleges which are on waiting list to join the NCC there is more demand from the girls’ schools and women colleges. To further increase the share of girl cadets we have provided 20 per cent reservation for the NCC Cadets at the Officers Training Academy (OVA). Similarly, around 64 vacancies have been allotted for the NCC cadets joining the Indian Military Academy (IMA) and 10 per cent reservation for our cadets to join the Naval and Air Wings in the National Defence Academy (NDA),” he added.
Career cells
Among NCC’s new initiatives and expansion plans, he said that NCC has set up Career Counselling Cells in rural and semi-urban areas, where NCC Officers will be offering counselling and training to students in these areas.
He also said that the NCC-UNICEF programme where female NCC cadets provide basic education to illiterate girls in the rural areas of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand will be spread to other states across the country. Similarly, the NCC has also started its own adventure nodes for its cadets and has tied up with Australia and Kazakhistan for conducting youth exchange programmes.
Lt Gen Chaudhary also addressed the cadets at the All IndiaVayu Sainik Camp of the NCC Air Wing at the Jakkur Air Fields where 600 cadets from all over the country are participating.
The camp is also a venue for testing the training standards achieved by the cadets in the form of various Inter-Directorate competitions, which include flying, gliding, aero-modelling and various other activities.
