Priyanka Jagwan believes she is on the verge of realising a major dream early next year, to become one of the first women to enter the Indian army as a combat soldier.
"I am 100% sure about getting into the army. I have been preparing for sub-inspector of police but the army is better than the police. Its dress and discipline are respected everywhere," the 21-year-old final-year BA student says before embarking on her daily exercise routine.
Currently training with Youth Foundation, a trust founded by Col Ajay Kothiyal, the principal of the prestigious Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Ms Jagwan believes she will definitely be among the chosen few.
A resident of Augustyamuni, a town in the hills of Uttarakhand state about 450 kilometres northeast of Delhi, Ms Jagwan has been training in Srinagar, a city in Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, since Oct 22 along with 191 other young women. She says she aims to set an example for other women in her community and the state by gaining admission into the army's Corps of Military Police (CMP).
Gen Bipin Rawat, Chief of Army Staff, has said that the introduction of women for the first time into the CMP will help the army to deal more effectively with women who obstruct operations against terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir state.
The army also believes the entry of women as soldiers will help it to deal better with reports of crimes against women within the force. Though the recruitment date has not been announced, it is expected to be sometime in the first quarter of 2018.
The army currently has female officers in its medical, engineering and other wings, but it has never recruited a single woman for combat during its seven decades of existence.
Youth Foundation, which has trained more than 4,000 young men for army, police and paramilitary positions since 2013 and enjoys a success rate of 65%, is training young women at two places in Uttarakhand. Besides the 192 who are training in Srinagar, 296 others are sweating it out in another camp at Dehradun, the state capital.
Two thousand young women applied for the pre-recruitment training, and 660 matched the physical criteria set by Youth Foundation. They included a height of at least 157cm, weight of at least 48kg, 6/6 vision and an age of 18 to 21 years. A total of 488 reported for training. The rest either had exams or faced opposition from family members.
Candidates initially have to prove their ability to run 1.6km race in eight minutes or less, do a minimum of five pushups, jump over a ditch and balance their weight on a 2.5-metre-long rope. Those who pass undergo medical tests and a written exam.
Ms Jagwan says she is grateful that her parents, Bharat Singh and Maya Singh, did not insist on marrying her off after school. "Girls in Garhwal get married after the 12th class. Papa has allowed me to wait for more years," she said.
Nida Fatmi, 20, from Haldwani, also credits her parents -- labourer Mohammad Ikram and hospital employee Zakra -- for standing up for her in the face of community censure. "My relatives had a problem with me joining the training for the army. Papa said, 'You don't need to wear a burqa.' My parents allowed me to walk around in normal clothes," she said.
Alka Wilson, a Kotdwar resident and first-year BA student, who is training at the Dehradun camp, wants to break the stereotype that Christian girls are only cut out for nursing and teaching jobs.
"I was also thinking of going into nursing. But in June last year, I saw a few policewomen in Srinagar. They looked very smart and active. I decided to enroll in the pre-recruitment training for the military police. I have an opportunity to change the attitudes of my community," she told Asia Focus.
In Srinagar, Havildar (retired) Jaybir Rawat trains the young women along with three female instructors from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, while in Dehradun, chief trainer Subedar (retired) Vikram Singh Chaudhary handles the work along with female instructors.
They lead the candidates in doing stretches, rope climbing and jumping over ditches for two hours each in the morning and evening. Mr Chaudhary has divided his trainees into five companies -- Alpha, Bravo, Delta, Charlie and Echo -- and frequently organises competitions between them.
Like the army, the pre-recruitment camps emphasise Indian secularism with Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Gorkha (people of Nepalese origin settled in India) women training together.
Col Kothiyal says he chose to train young people for the army to channel youthful energy. He started a camp for boys in 2013 after local people in Uttarkashi, a district in Uttarakhand, started pressing him to get their wards recruited into the army.
"In the first camp we trained 32 boys and 28 got selected. In the next we had 100. This is how we have grown," he said.
Today, besides the two camps for young women, Youth Foundation runs seven camps for boys in Uttarkashi.
The foundation uses old school, college and NGO buildings to house trainees and instructors. Col Kothiyal says he needs 6-7 million rupees in a year to run the camps. He does not charge the trainees anything and for now is sustaining the programme from personal savings and donations. He is unmarried.
A large industrial group has proposed to fund three of the training camps. The highly decorated colonel, a recipient of three major awards, wants to start a security agency with trainees who do not get selected.
Uttarakhand residents have a very long tradition of joining the Indian Army. In fact, many of the young women now training to be military police had grandfathers or fathers who served. Brothers and uncles of a few are still serving in different regiments.
"My papa (Subedar Sate Singh Rawat) retired from the 11th Garhwal Rifles. I visited his unit a number of times. I liked army men's hard work, discipline and personalities. I want to be like them," said Yogyata Rawat, 20, a BSc graduate now training at Dehradun.
