Satna, Madhya Pradesh

For the youth in Atra village in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, Dipendra Singh has been a mentor, more so for those wanting to join the army. Dipendra is surprisingly young to be a mentor at the age of 22, but circumstances made him choose this path. 

It was Dipendra’s fondest dream to join the Indian Army. Unfortunately, when he was still studying in school, he lost the fingers of his left hand in a terrible accident. But he did not let that incident pull him down and he has now realised his dream by training other young people to join the armed forces. 

“I lost my dream along with my three fingers. I had watched my father using the thresher and I wanted to try it out when my hand got caught in it,” Dipendra told Gaon Connection. 

Dipendra was only twelve when he lost his fingers but he kept himself fit running, exercising, and eating well. He did not know then that he could never join the army (because of physical disability). “It was only when I failed the army recruitment test in 2017 in my twelfth standard, that I learnt I would never be able to join the armed forces as I would always be ‘medically unfit’,” the 22-year-old said with a tinge of sadness. 

Also Read: He helps youngsters living in villages along the Indo-Pak border join the armed forces

However, Dipendra did not give up on his dream and decided to help other young people and prepare them for army recruitment.   

Family support 

Dipendra’s family, especially his father and older brother, was a great support to him. “They constantly encouraged me saying if not the army, I could always do well in the sports field. Or, train others,” Dipendra said. 

“Dipendra was always interested in fitness and kept himself fit. We all felt the army was the right place for him,” Gyan Singh, the 29-year-old brother of Dipendra, told Gaon Connection. Gyan Singh is a teacher at a school and earned about Rs 9000 a month, he said. 

 “My father and I managed to find some money to send him to the sports academy at Rohtak and Hisar [in Haryana] so that it would compensate somewhat for his disappointment for not joining the army,” Gyan Singh, who teaches at a school in Bihta,  said. 

Not just Dipendra, his father, Lal Mani Singh had also harboured hopes of joining the army. “But I was found not tall enough,” he told Gaon Connection. The love for the army and the desire to serve the country, perhaps came from Dipendra’s grandfather, Ram Sajivan Singh who was a freedom fighter. Lal Mani Singh is a farmer with about four acres of land and, other than his older son’s income, farming was their only source of livelihood for the family, he said.

Dipendra enrolled at the Milkha Singh Sports & Defence Academy in Hisar, Haryana where he was trained under coach Pawan Singh Lamba for a year from July 2018 to August 2019. 

From August 2020 to May 2021, he trained under Coach Sanjeev Nandal at Sri Baba Mastnath Athletics Centre in Rohtak. Currently, Dipendra is further shoring up his qualifications and is doing his Bachelors in Physical Education at the Rani Durgavati University in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

Free training

Dipendra provides training to the army aspirants completely free. He holds training camps at a stadium in Pittorabad village about four kilometres away from his own village, Atra. He said it was his passion and he did it as social work.

“The training is free. But, I do collect money to clean and repair the stadium if need be. If I have any other expenses, my father and brother help me out,” Dipendra said.  

When he was away getting trained himself, he continued online training sessions for others.  “Young people from  Pitthorabad, Atharvediya, Thurri, Bharri, Maihar and Uchehra are coming to be trained. In the past two years, four of them have already been recruited into the army,” Dipendra said with pride. 

Currently, there are 40 young people who are being trained by him for the recruitment camp. “I was only running every day in order to get fit, but then I heard Dipendra bhaiyya was providing a different kind of training,” Ashish Singh told Gaon Connection.  “I joined his free coaching and today I am in the army. I joined in February 2020,” the young man said with pride. 

Read the story in Hindi