NEW DELHI: It might be the time when the footage of a young and determined Pradeep Mehra pursuing his dream of joining the Indian Army is going viral. But the hard fact remains that there has been no recruitment at the solder's level within the force for the last two years and the Indian Army has started to bear the operational cost of it.
While the Ministry of Defence on Monday informed that there has been no induction of fresh recruits, the numbers of soldiers leaving the Army has not come down.
A senior Army officer explained that with retirements continuing and there being no new recruitments, the operational contingencies have intensified in the recent years. "While the retirement (numbers) are at 50 to 60,000 every year, the stoppage of the arrival of new recruits has started pinching us operationally," he admitted.
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.
Every year about 50,000-60,000 new soldiers used to be inducted into the Indian Army but after 2019 no new recruitment has been made, informed the MoD and this has led to a rise in the workload of the soldiers as they are continuing duties with a lesser number of men in the units. This has affected those men deployed at high altitude areas or operational areas in particular.
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.
"All Recruitment Rallies planned by Army Recruiting Offices /Zonal Recruiting Offices have been suspended till further orders due to the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country," he informed Rajya Sabha.
He 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," said another officer.
The shortage of manpower has accumulated with the Army suffering the most.
It was during recently concluded assembly elections that youths had raised the issue of recruitment rallies in Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's election campaigns in Uttar Pradesh. Singh had assured them that it will resume soon. The Armed Forces remain the biggest job provider for youths from rural areas.
The government on 10 December 2021 had informed the parliament that the shortage in Army stands at 104053 personnel, while there 12431 vacancies in Navy and 5471 in the Air Force. The shortage has struck the publicised recruitment of the women in Other Ranks as well.
A total of 300 vacancies for recruitment of Women Military Police have been released till date. But only 101 have been inducted in 2019.
Other 200 were supposed to be inducted in 2020 and 2021 but the recruitment has been withheld due to the spread of the pandemic.