Relevance: GS-3: Various Security forces and agencies and their mandates

Key Phrases: Cabinet Committee on Security, Permanent Commission, Agniveers, All India, All Class, Seva Nidhi program, Agniveer Skill certificate, Central Armed Police Forces, Militarisation of Society, Vexing Social Problems

Why in News?

• The government has introduced a new recruitment scheme ‘Agnipath’ for the armed forces.
• Under this, youths between the ages of 17 and 23 will be trained to serve in the Army for four-year commissions.

Key Highlights of the Scheme:

• The Agnipath scheme, announced by the Government, provides for the following:
  • the recruitment of youths in the age bracket of 17-and-half years to 21, as soldiers across the three services i.e. Army, Navy, and Air force, for only four years;
  • a provision to retain 25 per cent of them for 15 more years
  • Later the Government extended the upper age limit to 23 years for recruitment in 2022.
  • the soldiers recruited under the scheme will be called as Agniveers.
• Under the scheme, around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually, and most will leave the service in four years.
• The scheme is only applicable to personnel below officer ranks.
• Agniveers will be offered an opportunity to apply for permanent enrolment in the Armed Forces upon the completion of four years of service, based on organisational requirements and policies promulgated by the Armed Forces from time to time.
• The recruitment will be done on “all India, all class” recruitment to the services which means from any caste, region, class, or religious background.
• Currently, recruitment is based on a ‘regiment system’ based on region and caste bases.

Aim of Agnipath Scheme

1. Main aim of the scheme is to make the Army a future-ready fighting force, capable of meeting multiple challenges across the full spectrum of conflict.
2. The scheme is aimed at strengthening national security and also for providing an opportunity to the youth to serve in the armed forces.
3. To cut the ballooning salary and pension bills.
4. To transform armed forces into youthful, tech-savvy, modern, and to harness the youth potential and make them a future-ready soldier.
5. It will help rehabilitate soldiers who leave the services after four years. There will be a “whole of government” approach, and they will be provided with skill certificates and bridge courses. The impetus will be to create entrepreneurs.

Benefits to Agniveers:

• During the period, 30 percent of their salary will be set aside under a Seva Nidhi program, and the Government will contribute an equal amount every month, and it will also accrue interest.
• At the end of the four-year period, each soldier will get a post-release financial package of Rs 11.71 lakh as a lump sum amount, which will be tax-free, insurance, access to credit, and an Agniveer Skill certificate.
• A bridging course of the choice certificate will be provided for further studies.
• For those wishing to be entrepreneurs, priority under bank loans will be provided.
• The Agniveers will be given priority in CAPFs, Assam Rifles, and police and allied forces in several States.

Other Important Terms and Conditions under the Agnipath scheme:

• 'Agniveers' will be barred from disclosing classified information gained during the four-year service period to any unauthorised person or source under the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
• The enrolment of soldiers in the regular cadre of the Indian Army will be available only to those personnel who have completed their engagement period as Agniveer except for technical cadres of the medical branch
• Release of an Agniveer at own request prior to completion of terms of engagement is not permitted. In exceptional cases if sanctioned by the competent authority the personnel may be released.
• The new recruits will be subjected to the provisions of the Army Act, 1950 and will be liable to go wherever ordered by land, sea or air.
• Agniveers will be given a "distinctive insignia" on their uniform during their service period and that detailed instructions on it will be issued separately.
• The 'Agniveers' will be eligible for 30 days leave in a year as against 90 days for those in regular service. Medical leave will be granted based on medical advice.
• For personnel below the age of 18 years, the enrolment form will be required to be signed by the parents or guardians.

What are the objections raised with the Scheme?

1. No Army Pension:
   • Protests are mainly around temporary tenure and lack of pension since they will not be eligible for the usual Army pensions.
2. Threat to National Security:
   • Concerns are raised about the quality of service and consequences for national security.
   • It will also arm and could brutalise our youth in irreparable ways, a price we cannot afford.
3. Vulnerability to Mental Disorders among recruits:
   • Studies in European countries where there is compulsory military service show that such recruits often suffer mental health issues or have substance abuse problems, commit crimes or domestic violence.
4. Post Retirement Placement of soldiers:
   • After four years in the Army, having carried and learnt to use weapons, when they return to civilian life, it would be difficult for them to find a comparable placement.
   • The question here arises is “Apart from private security and the police, who will need these skills? If nobody needs them, where will these young men go and what will they do?”
5. Breeding Ground for Riots:
   • Post Retirement Agniveers will have to restart their life in aspirational society where their prospects will not match their hopes.
   • Their disappointment and resentment would make it easy to mobilise them against others who may have studied further or apprenticed in a commercial trade and this could lead to incitement of riots etc.
6. Fodder for Civil Wars and Militarisation of Society:
   • India has been witnessing declining sex ratios i.e., a daughter deficit.
   • Already, in some States, men find it hard to get married and have to import wives, sometimes shared by several brothers.
   • These men who will not raise families could become cannon fodder for civil wars.
   • If we train and arm them to fight and then unleash them upon society, the consequences can only be dire.
7. Aggravating Gender Violence:
   • We must not overlook the connection between guns and gender-based violence.
   • Where people are comfortable carrying, owning and using guns, we find a strong correlation with increased levels of intimate partner and domestic violence.
   • Assault at gunpoint becomes a more realistic threat in public spaces.

Conclusion:

• Militarisation creates more problems than it solves as it increases the levels of violence, public and interpersonal insidiously.
• Acceptance of violence as a legitimate language of interaction reinforces impunity for both citizen violence and State violence.
• The means determine the end and thus, free, open democratic societies cannot seek militaristic solutions to social problems without sacrificing liberty and justice.

Source: Live-Mint

Mains Question:

Q. Highlight the salient features of the Agnipath scheme. Also, discuss the challenges associated with the scheme. (250 words).