Ever since the Defence Ministry announced the Agnipath scheme for recruitment into armed forces, the scheme has met with resistance from a large number of so-called army aspirants and opposition political parties. As usual, Rahul Gandhi has criticised the scheme, instigating more protests against it.
Under this new scheme of recruitment into armed forces, soldiers will be recruited for four years. After the end of the term, they will be able to apply for permanent jobs in the armed forces, and around 25% of them will be inducted. After the four-year service period, Agniveers who are not absorbed in regular commission will be paid a one-time ‘SevaNidhi’ package amounting to ₹11.71 Lakh. They will also get preference in PSUs, and State Governments’ jobs, and state and central police forces.
This has been called a radical change in the recruitment process, and some youths aspiring to be soldiers are burning trains against it, demanding the continuation of existing recruitment process. While the opposition parties and even some army veterans have criticised the scheme, the fact is that such short service for soldiers was suggested two decades ago, in the Kargil Review Committee report.
The committee formed to study the sequence of events that led to the Kargil war and make recommendations had made several suggestions to improve the defence of the country. Some of them have been already implemented.
One of the key recommendations of the committee was to reduce the average age of soldiers, as the report said that the army must be young and fit all the times. The committee had also recommended an integrated manpower policy for Armed forces, para-military forces and the Central police forces.
The committee had said, “in the light of the new situation of proxy war and large scale terrorism that the country faces, the role and the tasks of the para-military forces have to be restructured particularly with reference to command and control and leadership functions. They need to be trained to much higher standards of performance and better equipped to deal with terrorist threats. The possibility of adopting an integrated manpower policy for the Armed Forces, para-military forces and the Central police forces merits examination.”
The report had further said, “The Army must be young and fit at all times. Therefore, instead of the present practice of having 17 years of colour service (as has been the policy since 1976), it would be advisable to reduce the colour service to a period of seven to ten years and, thereafter, release these officers and men for service in the country’s para-military formations.”
The committee formed after the Kargil war had suggested that after the end of the service period, they can be absorbed in regular police forces or in a “National Service Corps (or a National Conservation Corps), as provided for under Article 5 lA(d) of the Constitution, to spearhead a range ofland and water conservation and physical and social infrastructure development.”
The committee had observed that this will reduce the age profile of the Army and the para-military forces, and also reduce pension costs and other entitlements such as married quarters and educational facilities.
The committee had noted that the army pension bill of ₹6,932 crore in 1999-2000 was almost two-thirds of the salary bill, and it was rising sharply every year. In this year’s budget, ₹5.25 lakh has been allocated for defence, out of which ₹1,19,696 crore is allocated for pensions alone, which means almost 25% of defence budget is spent for paying pensions only. The army pension have gone up sharply after the implementation of the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme.
Such large amount spent on pension means that nothing much is left for much needed modernisation of the armed forces, including procurement of modern arms and equipment systems. The defence sector already gets a large portion of budget allocation, and the possibility of increasing its share is very less. While some experts suggest increasing the budget allocation for defence, the Kargil Committee had suggested against it.
While noting that budgetary constrains have affected the process of modernisation and created certain operational voids, the committee had said that the share of allocation for defence should not be increased, instead, the govt should find another way to increase spending on modernisation. The report had said, “The Committee would not like to advocate any percentage share of GDP that should be assigned to defence. This must be left to the Government to determine in consultation with the concerned departments and the Defence Services.”
The Agnipath scheme implements these recommendations.
Under this scheme, candidates between the age of 17½ years and 21 years will be recruited as Angiveers, and as they will serve for only 4 years, the maximum age of an Angiveer will be 25 years. Thus, the soldiers will remain young and fit in their entire term of service.
While 25% of the Agniveers recruited under Agnipath scheme will be absorbed into regular commission, who will be promoted to higher ranks, the rest 75% will be given preference in govt and PSU jobs. This includes recruitment into state police forces and central armed police forces. Youths trained in army working in police forces will definitely enhance the operational efficiency of the police and para-military forces.
Apart from state and central police forces, the retired Agniveers will also be valuable manpower in central and state disaster response forces, and similar jobs requiring physical fitness. Therefore, while 75% of the youths will no longer be with the army after 4 years of service, they will certainly find gainful employment in govt and private sector.
The Agnipath scheme will help in keep a check on the rising army pension bill, as the Agniveers will not be paid pension after their service is over. Around 45000 to 50000 Agniveers will recruited every year, which means a substantial savings in pensions under the under Agnipath scheme.
And all these were recommended by the Kargil Review Committee more than two decades ago, which was not implemented by the previous govts.
Army had proposed three-year recruitment scheme
Not just the Kargil committee, the Indian Army had also proposed a recruitment scheme similar to the Agnipath scheme to save on manpower cost. In 2020, the army had proposed “tour of duty” scheme to recruit youths for 3 years. The current scheme has several similarities with this proposal, while the service term has fixed at 4 years instead of 3 years.
The army had calculated substantial monetary savings by employing soldiers for three years instead of 17 years currently, saying that the saved money can be used for the much needed modernisation of the armed forces.
