NEW DELHI: Alarmed by the disturbingly large shortage of officers, the Armed Forces are contemplating a series of measures ranging from Emergency commissioning to more lucrative packages to attract talent.
The Defence Ministry is examining proposals on a war footing for fear that the yawning gap in officer strength will affect operational preparedness,
The Army is short of at least 9,000 Captains, the key officers in operational units, It also lacks an adequate number of Colonels and Lieutenant Colonels.
The Air Force is short of at least 900 officers and about 6,000 airmen, The Navy is 14% short of its requirements it needs at least 800 officers, most of them in the technical cadres. It also needs at least 1,000 sailors, mostly in the non-arifice (non-technical) cadre.
The shortages are not because the Government isn’t sanctioning the required number. A survey shows that the armed forces do not seem to attract the best of talent any more the country’s youths seem to have put the armed forces seventh on their list of preferences, Recruiting offices all over the country are teaming with hopefuls, but the quality that the forces seek which are busy with staff reviews to redress the situation. Besides considering the Emergency Commission proposal, the three wings are also contemplating making the Short Service Commission more lucrative.
International committees have been working out packages for such short-tenure commissions, simultaneously keeping in view the need to bring down the astronomical pay and pensions bill.
One such package from defence planners is the Voluntary National Service (VNS). This envisages, 25 years from now, an Army, in which 70% of the men will serve five to seven years before being resettled in the civil sector.
Once it is fully operational, the scheme envisages the annual absorption of 83,000 YNS officers and 1,53,000 men in the civil sector. It is also expected to reduce personnel costs by 40% and the pension bill by 80%.
The Air Force and the Navy have already introduced new catch them-young schemes by introducing special recruitment drives like 10+2 cadet entries, direct entry from the university, SSC etc. The main reason for the shortage of officers in the three services appears to be that the number of defence services personnel coting for premature retirement is increasing. They are doing so due to stagnation and lack of promotional avenues. Two cadre reviews in 1980 and four years later pushed officers up, but created other problems, for instance, Battalions/ Regiments in the army which were earlier commanded by Lt. Colonels, are now being commanded by full Colonels.
The reduced prestige and power seems to have led to loss of morale at the higher echelons, as cadre reviews have created a bulge at the middle jewels, leading to ridiculous situations where Lieutenant-Generals were performing jobs previously discharged by Colonies.
The result was that the Defence Minister, aware of the disaffection at the senior levels, liberalized opting out, by introducing a scheme where in any officer who wanted to could go. The scheme backfired: it pushed up officers from ranks like Captains, creating large gaps at those levels,
In the case of the Army, one major reason for this is the inordinately large rate of attraction at the level of captain during the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) operations, Most combat and patrol missions in Sri Lanka were led by young captains who were singled out for attention by LTTE snipers.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 28, 1992
