Agnipath (Tour Of Duty) Scheme of Indian Armed Forces.

 Agnipath (Tour Of Duty) Scheme:

Tour of Duty allows civilians of the country to join the Indian Army for three years and serve the country as an army soldier. There are multiple moments where one can feel the urge to something significant for the country and this opportunity is right there catering for that need.

Its is a scheme undertaken by central government of India to provide a new type of entry mechanism for Indian youths to get into Indian armed forces.

This entry will provide a service of 3 years in army, navy and airforce. The soldiers coming through this scheme will be called as agniveers.

The Army has always been feeling deficiency of officers at the level of Lt and Capt. To fill this gap, there is a need for short service officers. These join at the lower level and leave within a few years. This fills the gap at the Platoon and Company levels in a Battalion, where needed most.

Some of the features of this entry are :

• No pension & no retirement benefits.
• No entrance test but youths will have to go through a rigorous military training.
• Young people from IITs and other professional streams will also be allowed to enlist in the Army, Air Force, or Navy.

Benefits  for Armed forces:

• No pensions will be given to soldiers through this entry so it will save revenue expenditure of the armed forces.
• Will provide a large talent pool to search from.
• This scheme will also reduce the average age of forces.
• Forces will also have the option of hiring specialists for specific tasks.

Benefits for Youths:

• Scheme will provide early opportunity to get into armed forces.
• Exposure to military environment and training will improve overall personality.
• Can switch the career after 3 years.
• Best performing soldiers will be made permanent .

Challenges for Army:

• Ensuring the quality of selection.
• Preventing any type of inter platoon entry based discrimination.
• Training the recruits to take risks amidst operations especially when there are no provisions for post service medical care.
• Ensuring coordination in the soldiers coming from other conventional entries and agniveers.

Challenges for Youths:

• Finding a new career after 3 years.
• Can sustain battle injuries in 3 years of service which will post service life also.

Possible solutions:

• Ensuring medical care provisions for injuries sustained during services.
• Ensuring post service attachaements in CAPF and other paramilitary forces.
• Making the selection process at par with other entries.

The proposal envisages a shift from the concept of a permanent service/job in the Armed Forces, towards an ‘Internship’/Temporary experience for three years. This is seen as a radical shift from the long-held organizational view that the period of service of short service entries is increased from the current 5+5 model to 10+4 years for retention of trained manpower for a longer duration.

By Kartikeya Upadhyaya.

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