Passing our parade of recruits religious teachers

PUNE A batch of 30 recruits religious teachers (RRTs) were commissioned as junior commissioned officers on Saturday after a passing out parade held at Institute

PUNE A batch of 30 recruits religious teachers (RRTs) were commissioned as junior commissioned officers on Saturday after a passing out parade held at Institute of National Integration (INI), Pune.

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Brigadier Samir Salunke, commandant of institute, reviewed the parade and awarded general officer commanding in Chief, Army training command and INI commandant’s gold and silver medals to Naib Subedar (RT) Manish Sharma of Maratha LI Regtl Centre and Naib Subedar (RT) Suneel Kumar of 2 ASC Regtl Centre, respectively who distinguished themselves in varied facets of 11 weeks of intense training. The ceremony was attended by parents of the religious teachers (RTs) among others.

The commandant congratulated the commissioned junior commissioned officers and their parents in attendance, for successful completion of gruelling pre-commissioning training incorporating subjects related to national integration, behaviour and social science including spiritualism, yoga, psychological counselling and stress management. The religious teachers passing out from INI were considered optimally ready to perform assigned duties of ‘Dharam Guru’ as also shoulder additional responsibilities of a psychological counsellor and mental health mentor in times of stress-related environmental dynamics, across varied and harsh terrains along northern and eastern borders.

The Commandant further reiterated that these religious teachers indeed play a very important role towards building up of morale, motivation amongst troops and their families, to serve as a catalyst to ensure unit’s cohesion, thus contributing to battle-winning ethos prevailing in units.

INI as a premier and unique training institution established in 1984, remains committed in its resolve to serve as Nodal Centre for Behaviour and Social Science, while wholly contributing towards its primary mandate of nation-building through national integration as depicted by its logo of ‘unity in diversity’.