On June 14, 2022, the Cabinet cleared the Agnipath Scheme for temporary recruitment of youth in the Indian Armed Forces. Under the scheme, the enrolled youth would draw an attractive monthly package along with risk and hardship allowances as applicable in the their services. The scheme called Agnipath, which has been designed to enable a youth profile for the Armed Forces, will select youth for a period of four years to serve the security forces. Such youth would be known as Agniveers. They would form a distinct rank in the Armed Forces, different from any other existing ranks. This, according to the government, will help the Armed Forces have a “younger, fitter, diverse profile for facing future challenges”. Under the scheme, Agniveers will be enrolled under respective Service Acts. As many as 46,000 Agniveers will be recruited this year and a one-time ‘Seva Nidhi’ package of Rs 11.71 lakh will be paid to the youth once their engagement period of four years comes to an end. The ‘Seva Nidhi’ will be exempt from Income Tax. There shall be no entitlement to gratuity and pensionary benefits. Agniveers will be provided a non-contributory Life Insurance Cover of Rs 48 lakh for the duration of their engagement period in the Indian Armed Forces. Agniveers will be offered an opportunity to apply for permanent enrolment in the Armed Forces. These applications will be considered in a centralised manner based on objective criteria including performance during their four-year engagement period and up to 25 percent of each specific batch of Agniveers will be enrolled in the regular cadre of the Armed Forces. The individuals, selected for enrolment in the Armed Forces as regular cadre, would be required to serve for a further engagement period of a minimum of 15 years and would be governed by the existing terms and conditions of service of Junior Commissioned Officers/Other Ranks in Indian Army and their equivalent in Indian Navy and Indian Air Force and that of non-combatant enrolled in the Indian Air Force, as amended from time-to-time. Enrolment will be undertaken through an online centralised system for all three services with specialised rallies and campus interviews from recognised technical institutes such as Industrial Training Institutes and National Skills Qualifications Framework, among others. Enrolment will be based on an ‘All India All Class’ basis and the eligible age will be in the range of 17.5 to 23 years. Agniveers will meet the medical eligibility conditions laid down for enrolment in the armed forces as applicable to respective categories/trades. The educational qualification for Agniveers will remain as in vogue for enrollment in various categories.
After four years of service, 25% of the Agniveers will be retained in the regular cadre based on merit, willingness and medical fitness. They will then serve for a full term of another 15 years. While the other 75% Agniveers will be demobilised, with an exit or “Seva Nidhi ” package of Rs 11-12 lakh, partly funded by their monthly contributions, as well as skill certificates and bank loans for help in their second careers. As per the brief shared by the Air Force, an Agniveer will not be permitted to leave the service before completing the engagement period. “…except in exceptional cases, with approval of the Competent Authority,” it adds. Concerns have been raised about the employability of the 75% who will return to the civil world after serving for four years in the armed forces. Several commoners and politicians have complained that the Centre’s new scheme is unfair and would end up depriving the recruited personnel of various monetary benefits such as a pension, etc. Further, only 25 percent of the recruits will have a future in the Armed forces after the four-year period. However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has assured that Aginveers will be prioritised while recruiting Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). Other concern is that a combat soldier cannot be trained in four years, and the scheme thus compromises national security. The idea of shortened training spell indirectly mocks the skill-sets for which the armed forces train their cadres so sincerely. For instance, the Army alone has over 150 trades, which is significant. The tenure of a soldier or sailor or airman under the Agnipath scheme would be chock-a-block with activities. In his four-year tenure, the recruitment training, authorized leaves, and temporary duties would eat up to 90 weeks. Next, expelling youth from the armed forces after four years will create security problems. Given the experience of retired soldiers at the age of 38, it is complicated to get absorbed into the paramilitary forces. In other civilian sectors, mostly the retired armed forces personnel get jobs as guards in the private security agencies. Mostly, they cannot find respectable employment and are dependent on their pensions and other post-retirement benefits. In the case of Agneeveers, as they will be leaving the armed forces they can, if unemployed, fall prey to the lure of crime syndicates, radical political outfits, and worse the foreign intelligence agencies. Trained in handling weapons and explosives and having the basic knowledge of military establishments functioning, such a person can be a real security threat. Some of the more enterprising ones could join the overseas mercenary groups and private military contractors (PMCs). After all, in Ukraine today, many PMCs are fighting for that country. The key issue that needs attention is what would happen to the ‘Agniveers’ after they go through their Tour of Duty? The words ‘Agnipath’ and ‘Agniveer’ give some romantic ideas about soldiering to the youth but the reality of serving as a soldier with dignity and then being left unemployed when in their early 20s would make any young man feel extremely insecure and vulnerable. No assurance has been given by the government that the ‘Agniveers’ would be employed in other organs of the government after their four-year stint with the armed forces. The industry is encouraged to hire them and offers limited or no solace. Moreover, the youth leaving after four years had become known about the layout of the military units, bases and defense establishments because they had served in them and had access to many other sensitive establishments, which makes them identifiable targets of intelligence agencies of our adversaries. Therefore, keeping them suitably employed is also a national security necessity.
( The author is a freelancer. Views are his own)
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