Growing frustration in Indian military

Growing frustration in Indian military

 The Indian armed forces are facing a shortage of 15,004 officers and have initiated several measures, including increasing the intake of Short Service Commission (SSC) officers, to meet the shortfall, The extent of shortage of officers is around 12,349 in the Army, 1,818 in the Navy and 837 in the Air Force. The shortage of pilots in the Air Force is about 426. Indian Armed Forces are facing a number of problems. The fatigue phenomenon is seeping low down into the morale of the Indian Armed Forces and the situation is touching the irretrievable extent.

 Suicides and fratricidal killings apart, what is contributing more to the phenomenon is voluntary resignations by Service officers. All the three Services witnessed a gradual increase in voluntary discharge of officers. About 3764 officers of Army, 842 officers of Navy and 893 officers of Air Force have sought discharge/voluntary retirement, with most of them moving to the lucrative corporate sector since 2004. Similarly, 37,865 personnel below the rank of officers were granted voluntary retirement during the same period. Initially, the Indian government was reluctant to relieve them, but when the mental stress of Jawans resulted in fratricides and suicides the Indian government considered resignations a fair way-out of this intense situation.

The reluctance of people to join forces and the tendency of premature retirement are responsible for the shortage of officers in Indian Armed Forces. There are many reasons for premature retirement e.g. low remuneration, suppression for promotion, being placed in a permanently low medical position, denial of leave, stress and low morale, long engagement in insurgency ridden areas, increase in better employment opportunities on civil side, compassionate reasons such as looking after ailing parents and children, ancestral property and failure to acquire minimum technical qualifications recommended for promotion. Due to all these reasons the Indian armed forces today are not an enviable career choice. Every year, a lot of requests for voluntary resignations come before the Indian government but only the most pressing ones are entertained. The unfortunate applicants, whose requests are not granted, suffer from heightened mental stress and psychological problems resulting in fratricide and suicides. The situation has become so intense that that nearly 100 Indian army soldiers commit suicide every year due to stress. Indian Army looses 25-35 officers & 500-750 Jawans every year in anti terrorist operations in Kashmir & North East India.Marrying army persons is the last options for most of Indian girls.