Hours after protests erupted across the country against the short-term Agnipath scheme for the armed forces, officials sought to assuage fears by distributing a Myth vs Fact document, emphasising that the new scheme will not only bring in new capabilities, but will also open up avenues in the private sector, allowing young men to become entrepreneurs with the help of a financial package.
The fundamental anxieties and uneasiness of those demonstrating on the streets or watching from the sidelines stem from the new scheme’s transient character – service is only for four years, there is no pension, and there is no lifetime healthcare benefit for the soldier and his family.
Many of them may also be ineligible, as there has been no recruiting since 2020, and aspirants must be between the ages of 17.5 and 21 to become an Agniveer. The administration issued a one-time concession on the maximum age restriction, boosting it to 23 years in 2022, late Thursday night.
Until now, a soldier enjoyed employment stability for around 17 years, followed by the security of a pension and access to government-subsidized healthcare for himself and his family. If a soldier was killed in combat, his family continued to receive benefits.
These benefits will be phased off under the Agnipath plan. One of the scheme’s basic but unspoken goals is to reduce the military’s increasing wage and pension expenditure. Out of the Rs 5.25 lakh crore defence budget, the government has committed about Rs 2.5 lakh crore under these two headings alone this year.
The Agniveers, as the soldiers would be known under the four-year Agnipath programme, will be paid for their duty and will receive a lump sum payment of Rs 11.7 lakh at the end of it, which will be tax-free. There is no such thing as a pension or long-term health benefits.
If an Agniveer dies while on duty, his or her family would get Rs 1 crore in compensation, which includes insurance, ex-gratia, and the remaining pay. It will, however, be a one-time payment.
Those who join the military forces beyond the four-year period will continue to get these advantages. According to the plan, all Agniveers will complete their four-year term and then 25% of the same pool will be recruited again. They will be able to stay in the military for another 15 years and get a pension as well as the current health benefits.
The others, on the other hand, will be free to seek alternative jobs, with numerous ministries and governments saying that they will be given priority, school credits, and skill certificates to assist them in rehabilitating in other industries.
The assumption that Agniveers will feel “insecure” is a fantasy, according to official sources. Those who want to be entrepreneurs will be given a financial package and bank loans, according to the sources, while those who want to continue their education would be given a “12 class equivalent diploma and bridging course for higher studies.”
The administration has previously said that job applicants would be given precedence in the Central Armed Police Forces. Priority in police recruitment has also been guaranteed in several BJP-ruled states. Furthermore, the government has said that “many pathways in other industries are also being created for them.”
There is also concern about how the new recruitment path will align with the previous system for the Army, which is based on the Recruitable Male Population (RMP) system, which is the proportion of the male population that meets the Qualitative Recruitments laid down for recruitment and is about 10% of the total male population of a state, according to the census.
The details of how this would happen, according to sources inside the defence forces, are still being worked out. However, some claim that the armed forces’ population will be representative of the country’s population.
According to government sources, “recruitment of Agniveers will be roughly quadruple that of the existing armed services recruiting” in the future years. However, the government stated on Tuesday, the day of the scheme’s unveiling, that the first admission will be 46,000 people, with yearly intake increasing to 50,000 to 60,000 in the future.
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