General Studies Paper-2
Context: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition said the new government should review the “Agnipath” scheme for short term recruitments to the armed forces.
Agnipath Scheme
- It was introduced in 2022, and is also called the Tour of Duty scheme.
- It is a short-term recruitment scheme for the Indian Army.
- Under the policy, soldiers — called ‘Agniveers’ — are recruited for four years, at the end of which only 25 percent of recruits from a batch are retained for regular service for 15 years.
- Age Limit : Candidates between the age of 17.5 years to 21 years are eligible for enrolling in the Agnipath scheme.
- The scheme provides an avenue to Indian youth, desirous of serving the country to get recruited in the Armed Forces for a short duration.
- The scheme enhances the youth profile of the Armed Forces.
Significance of the Scheme
- Reducing the Average Age in Military: There has been a focus within the military to bring down the average age of soldiers, especially within the Army, since the 1980s.
- The scheme aims to recruit Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces.
- Short Term Services in Other Countries: In modern armed forces of various countries, the service ranges from 2 to 8 years with options for active and reservist.
- The Israeli army has service of 30 months and 20 months respectively for men and women.
- Similarly the United States and United Kingdom also have short duration contracts.
- The ‘Agnipath’ scheme will be comparable to the time frame in many world class armed forces.
- Technologically Advanced Future: Future wars will be fought with artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cyber space and space based ISR (Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance).
- Agnipath in India will ensure a youthful and tech-savvy profile of the armed forces.
- Budgetary Constraints: One of the greatest challenges facing the Indian armed forces today is overall budgetary constraint.
- Huge salary and pension bills have placed enormous stress on the availability of funds for military modernization.
- Employment: This scheme will increase employment opportunities and because of the skills and experience acquired during the four-year service such soldiers will get employment in various fields.
- This will also lead to availability of a higher-skilled workforce to the economy which will be helpful in productivity gain and overall GDP growth.
Concerns
- Short Duration: Four years is too short a time for a conscript to acquire the skills essential for operating sophisticated systems in the technology-intensive Navy and Air Force.
- May Lead to Cohesiveness: For the Army, which has a regimental system, it is feared that it will impair the unit’s cohesiveness as the soldier on a short-term contract would not have the same dedication and devotion to the nation or duty.
- Lack of Employment Guarantee: It is argued that it would be unfair to the recruit since he would be devoid of an employment guarantee at the expiry of four years.
- Training Duration: The main weakness of the scheme is that a mere six-month training for a soldier, especially to prepare him for an increasingly high technology environment, would be thoroughly inadequate.
Conclusion
- The Agnipath scheme, designed to modernize and streamline the Indian Armed Forces, has faced significant criticism and challenges.
- With political promises to abolish the scheme and ongoing feedback from military personnel, the future of the Agnipath scheme remains uncertain.
- As the government and military leadership consider adjustments, the primary goal will be to balance operational effectiveness with the welfare and satisfaction of soldiers.