NEW DELHI: Youth from across the country aspiring to join the Indian Armed Forces gathered at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday to protest against the delay in recruitment process. The protesters claimed that there has been no recruitment for the non-officer other ranks in the Army, Air Force and Navy for the last two years. The youth demanded that Army recruitment rallies should be held and declare pending airmen results.
"It is a matter of our future as there have hardly been any recruitment rallies," said Kundan, who is an aspirant to join the Indian Army.
"So many youths who had been working hard to join the armed forces have got overage because the recruitment rallies were not held," he added.
There have been social media campaigns by the aspirants to draw the attention of the officials and once it did not bring the desired result these aspirants decide to converge at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi they said.
The protest was planned to coincide with Parliament in session as the youth believe that something concrete would come up in their favour.
In the case of the Indian Air Force examination for airmen was conducted in July last year with the result supposed to be declared in three weeks. The aspirants alleged that the enrollment list is yet to be made public by the Air Force.
"Our examination was taken in July and the enrolment lists have not yet been published. Its been around 9 months and we have received no communication from the defence ministry and Indian Air Force," Jyani Bhawani, one of the aspirants.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt cited the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for cancelling all the rallies nationwide.
The Indian Army currently has a sanctioned strength of 12, 12,000, but it has a shortage of 81,000 personnel. Currently, there are 12,431 vacancies in Navy and 5,471 in the Air Force.
Every year, Army, Navy and Air Force used to hold about 100 recruitment rallies, covering all regions to induct around 60,000 recruits into the Army alone.
As reported by TNIE, with retirements continuing and there being no new recruitments, the operational contingencies have intensified in recent years. About 50 to 60,000 soldiers retire every year and the stoppage of the arrival of new recruits has started pinching the Army operationally.
There is protracted tension along the Line of Actual Control with a heightened deployment along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh and the deployment has also been spruced up as a precautionary measure.
MoS Defence also shared the details of the recruitment rallies that the Indian Army was supposed to carry out in 2020 and 2021.
Bhatt stated that 97 rallies were planned in 2020-21, out of which only 47 rallies could be conducted. Out of the 47 recruitment rallies, Common Entrance Exam (CEE) for only four rallies could be conducted before the suspension of recruitments.
For 2021-22, as many as 87 recruitment rallies were scheduled, out of which only four rallies have been conducted so far and no CEE could be conducted.
The situation will worsen further and even if the recruitment begins now.
"It will still take around 1.5 years to select and train them," as told by an Army officer.
In 2018-19, 53431, and in 2019-20, 80572 candidates were inducted.
The issue has been raised by several opposition leaders in Parliament time and again.
The agitating aspirants further said that the government can conduct election rallies during peak in the Covid cases but they can’t recruit us.
"It is an irony," said Bhawani, who hails from Rajasthan.
Talking about the future course of action the protesting aspirants told they will continue with their agitation at Jantar Mantar.