Soni Bisht’s world had come crashing down in January 2023 when her husband, Sepoy Neeraj Singh Bhandari of the 18 Kumaon regiment, died in a road accident. The couple had been married just a month earlier in December 2022.
Under the Agnipath scheme, around 46,000 soldiers, between the ages of 17-and-a-half years and 21 years, will be recruited into the three services in a contract for four years. The youth selected under this scheme will be known as ‘Agniveers.’