Gunning for gold: This part of UP is shooting its way to glory

Nearby, Neetu is training youths in rifle shooting. Using borrowed guns, she has set up a firing range under a large sheesham tree. “I wanted to pass on my skills to village youths who lack other opportunities,” says Neetu, a national shooter, who is now pursuing her postgraduation.

Back in Johadi, 16-year-old Arvind Tomar trundles in his wheel-chair to the tin-shed shooting range in the mosque compound. He pulls himself up to the raised platform, eagerly picks up an air pistol and takes a shot at the rusted target, cool enough to justify his Sports Authority of India (SAI) scholarship.

Dr Rajpal Singh, who started the first rifle shooting camp in Johadi way back in 1998, says today there are at least 20 such camps in the area, training around 400 shooters. “This is a phenomenon unique to this region,” he claims, adding that shooters who learnt their trade here have now set up camps in towns like Baraut, Binoli, Khekra, Sirsali, Chhapprauli, Khekra and Shamli.

Initially the idea was to wean away rural youth from crime, says Rajpal, underlining the high unemployment rate in the area. Now, however shooting has become a way of life.

“Using borrowed guns, poor village youths are spending hours at target practice, hoping to represent the country in international shooting championships,” says Farooq Pathania of the Johadi Rifle Association.

“Villagers were initially wary of allowing their children to take up arms,” says Rajpal. “They thought it would make them criminals. Some felt I was forming a gang,” recalls Rajpal, a municipal doctor in Delhi. “Thing changed when we started winning medals in national and international competitions. This was followed by jobs in the armed forces and airlines.”

His son Vivek, for instance, won the Arjuna award and landed up a job with Indian Airlines. He and his father donated one month’s pay each to start the Johadi training camp from the mosque compound. “To begin with, there were around 20 trainees. Today, the Johadi Rifle Association has 100 trainees, half of them girls,” says Farooq. The club even boasts of two woman shooters aged over 65—grandmothers Chandro Tomar (65) and Prakasho Tomar 68) have travelled across the country to participate in contests.

In 2002, SAI made Johadi Rifle Club its training centre with Farooq as the coach. It also selected 30 youths for the Rs 600 monthly scholarships. Though this was a major morale booster, the lack of weapons continues to be a hurdle. “Our range started off with air pistols borrowed from Rahul Gandhi and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhry,” says Farooq, adding that the club then purchased an air pistol, while a patron donated another. “Those weapons have become old.” “A rifle costs Rs 1.5 lakh,” say Ravi Jatav, who has along with trainees Bittu Khan, Sachin and Deepak have pooled resources to buy one.

Trainees keep joining and leaving. The Army Boys Sports Company, as part of Mission Olympics, alone has absorbed 22 shooters, five of them from nearby Anchhaad village. The Army has also employed 14 shooters, says Farooq. Some like 21-year-old Seema Tomar, a winner of the Laxmi Bai award, have landed jobs with Indian Airlines. Other girls too are taking the sport seriously. Prakasho and Chandro’s granddaughters, Sonia and Shefali, practice for hours after college.

The same year, a full-fledged 10-m indoor range was constructed in the village on land donated by Dr Rajpal Singh and Rs 25 lakh from B P Singhal’s MPLAD funds. The range has not yet been inaugurated, but those who have practised here have won prestigious national awards in the sport.

Seventeen-year-old Zakir Khan, who came seventh in the Junior Pistol category at the World Championship in Zagreb, is a medal prospect for India at the Doha Asian Games. He get a Rs 3,000 monthly scholarship from Indian Airlines, but this mechanic’s son has no weapon of his own. All he has is an air pistol given by late Union Sports minister Sunil Dutt. His training is done mostly on borrowed sports pistols.

But despite the success of the region’s shooters, Rajpal does not believe in hankering for government aid. “Give assistance directly to deserving sportspersons, not to sports federations,” he says.