Defence
Notes
New Delhi, 16 March 2010
Army Besieged
FACES BIG SHORTAGE OF
OFFICERS
By Syed Ali Mujtaba
The approval of the Union Government to open a second
Officers' Training Academy (OTA) at Gaya in Bihar marks a major step to solve the problem of shortage
of officers in the country. The new academy will function on similar lines as the
one that exists in Chennai. Initially the new Officers
Training Academy
at Gaya will commence
the training of 250 cadets, but in due course of time it will be upgraded to
its full design capacity to train 750 short-service commission officers
annually.
At present the Indian Army has two training institutions--
one, is the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun that annually churns out
permanent commission officers. The other is the Short Service Commission
officers that come out of the Officers
Training Academy
at Chennai.
The IMA gets its cadets from the tri-Service National
Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla, which is open to youngsters after class
XII, as well as through the `direct entry' route open to college graduates. The
Officers Training Academy,
however, is open to college graduates and is struggling for students. In both
the institutions students have to clear a very comprehensive test and this
includes a physical endurance test.
As part of their force-restructuring to maintain a young
profile and attract bright youngsters to their fold, the Armed forces are
gradually moving towards substantially increasing the number of short service
commission officers in their ranks. The
change in intake pattern will eventually lead to one is to two ratio for
Permanent Commission to Short Service Commission officers.
The IMA currently has a capacity to train 950 officers per
year, while the OTA trains around 500 officers. The capacity at both these
academies is also being expanded to train an additional 100 cadets each every
year. However, the NDA that enlists high school graduates and trains them into
officers for the Navy, Air Force and the Army, is struggling to find
recruitments. The Defence Ministry
records show just 190 students signed up this month as against the Academy's
sanctioned strength of 300.
Incidentally, almost all the three wings of the Armed forces
in the country are short of officers. The Indian Army is short of around 11,400
officers, the Navy of 1,500 officers and the Air Forces is grappling with a
shortage of about 1,400-odd men.
The shortage of the defence force officers becomes
conspicuous when we cross-check shortages of the officers with those of its
prescribed strength. While the Army has an authorized strength of 46,614
officers, the Air Force has 12,136, whereas the Navy’s strength is of 8,797 officers.
Sadly, the Army, the world's fourth largest, is failing to
attract enough youngsters with “officer-like qualities'' for its 1.13-million
strong Army. In addition, the Army is facing a massive exodus from its ranks,
with more and more officers opting for premature retirement. This shortage of
officers is blamed on stress, low pay, slow promotions and the military's tough
lifestyle.
Even though the salary of the Armed forces have
substantially increased after the 6th Pay Commission, the youngsters still find
it less compared to the private sector. This consideration is put forth especially
when one takes into the account of the life of a soldier which is tough and
risky.
Additionally, the Army has severe promotional bottlenecks.
After entering the Army, an entry level officer must wait up to 10 years before
donning the flashes of a lieutenant-colonel. But even at that level the monthly
basic salary does not exceed much. The other contributing factors are poor
promotional avenues and frequent transfers that disrupt family life of the
officers.
The traditional catchments area like such as Punjab and Rajasthan for recruitment of Army officers
have apparently gone dry. Most of the
families that have strong soldiers background have stopped sending their wards
to the Amy schools and are keen to send them abroad, which obviously has hampered the steady flow of the officers in
the Military service.
This apart, it is the lack of interest of the Anglo-Indian
and Muslim communities in joining the Army that has resulted into further shortage
of the officers. If we check the old records and compare theses with the recent
ones the total desertions of these two communities from the Armed forces is
glaring.
We may like it or not, but corruption has entered into the Armed
forces as well. Many talented recruits feel that patriotism and valour, the two
cardinal features of the deference services, are increasingly being compromised
with corruption seeping into its ranks. This could also be one of the factors
that keeps them away from the defense services.
Other than the deficiencies in the Army itself, the shortage
of officers is also a result of the booming private sector managing to recruit
the best talent. The private sector,
which has been luring away India's
best talent by offering hefty wages and generous perks and the government and
the services, simply cannot compete in matters of salary and perks with the
corporate world.
Interestingly, the Armed forces have enormous opportunities
available outside the services. According to the defence ministry's Directorate
of Resettlement, a third of the 3,000 officers who retire annually enlist in
top Indian business schools. And the corporate world welcomes retiring military
recruits with open arms.
This has left the military with poor pickings. Most of those
applying are not the right material. Experts feel that the deficiencies should
not be met by lowering the quality standards of the world's largest voluntary
army.
India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan and a bloody border skirmish with China since its Independence,
has never turned to compulsory recruitment, as it is in countries like Israel. But
such a move could be an option before the Government. While it claims that it
has not given this aspect much thought, the possibility cannot be ruled out in
the future. However, skeptics feel that conscription is not the answer to the
problem because it may lead to indiscipline, waywardness and desertions.
Nonetheless the recruitment issue has become an urgent
priority for the Army after 3,000 mid-level commanders recently sought early retirement
on top of an existing shortage of 11,200 officers. In all, it needs a total of
46,615 officers. How this anomaly is going to be resolved needs to be seen in
the new policies that are going to be evolved by the government in the course
of time. The only consolation is that thanks to India's billion-plus population and
high unemployment, the 1.23-million-strong Army has no shortages in the lower
ranks.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
|