New Delhi: The Indian Army is planning to allow civilians to join the force for a 3-year stint as a part of an initiative called “Tour of Duty”. It entails recruiting young working professionals as officers, in logistic departments and even as front-line fighters.
The army said that the idea came after receiving a trememdous amount of interest by the youth of the nation in living the army life, but not as a profession. They felt that a temporary internship for civilians would prove to be beneficial for the army, corporate companies, and the person himself.
Army Chief General M M Naravane on Wednesday said that while visiting colleges and universities, the youth seemed eager to experience army life. “When our officers addressed youths in colleges, we came across the feeling that they want to experience army life, but not as a career. Taking a cue from this, this idea was born of why not give them an opportunity to serve for two to three years,” he said. “We will benefit by getting younger manpower a and the society will benefit by getting people who are disciplined and have imbibed the ethos of the army,” he added.
Although this is still under talks, if this initiative gets into motion, it is told to be preliminarily undertake 100 officers and 1000 men. It will be a voluntary engagement, with no dilution in selection criteria. Factors like age and fitness will be, nevertheless, taken into account. There are possibilities of the vacancies getting increased, once the model is found to be successful but after the commencement of it, limited positions will available.
The proposal is told to be discussed with the top commanders of the Army after which, the program will be taken forward. The people to be recruited under the Tour of Duty will be eligible to be deployed as combatants in key forward locations and there will be no restrictions in their roles.
“An officer or soldier after completing one year of training and three years of ToD is likely to display visible improvement in self confidence, teamwork, responsibility, initiative, stress management, innovation and social skills, according to a military officer. Initial survey tells that all corporates would favour an individual who has been trained by military and comes to them at 26/27 years of age rather than a raw college graduates at 22/23 years of age,” said a military officer.
The initiative will not just increase the manpower but also provide monetary support as finances will be saved. A military officer explains, “With the ToD concept implementation, there is likely to be an exponential reduction in our salary and pension budgets”
Officials said that the cost, including training, pay and allowances, incurred on people joining under the new model would be Rs 80-85 lakhs, as compared to over Rs 6 crore for an officer under the Short Service Commission, who serve up to 14 years. The army believes that the savings from this can be used in modernization. Savings will also be in other areas.