Its once again poor fitness standards which is acting as a stumbling block for youngsters in the State from joining the Army.

Many of the youngsters from the State, who turn up at the Armed Forces recruitment rallies, fail to pass fitness test.

“The fitness standards of young men who are aspiring to join the Army in the Soldiers General Duty, Soldiers Technical and Soldiers Tradesmen categories are pretty poor. Candidates from many districts fail to pass the physical tests which is not all that demanding,” Brig J M Devadoss, deputy director general of recruiting (Karnataka and Kerala), zonal recruiting office told Deccan Herald.

The recruitment officers have noticed that most of the candidates miss out in the running and chest expansion tests due to poor physical standards.

The candidates for the Soldier General Duty and Soldier Tradesmen category should have the following requirement:  height 166 cms, weight 50 kg and chest 77/82 cms, for selection.

Physical round
“There seems to be a weakness in the chest as most of them who fail to pass the physical round loose out due to this. Many candidates are not able to meet the chest expansion requirements which is mainly to lack of practice,” he added. In order to meet this requirements and to train candidates especially from the rural areas, the zonal recruiting office for quite some time now has been requesting the Education and Social Welfare Departments to make physical training (PT) compulsory.

“A 1.6 km run in the morning should be made part of the routine physical training in schools. Schools in rural areas should hold special camps by making use of the expertise of ex-servicemen but no special effort is made in this regard despite repeated requests,” he added.

Many states like Punjab and Rajasthan which have a high percentage of its candidates making into the Army have such special coaching classes.