The armed forces continue to face shortage of officers nearing more than 9,000 despite concerted drive to attract youth to don the uniform. Various reasons like better career opportunities in corporate sector and other Government wings are weaning away youth. While the Army has a shortfall of more than 7,000, the Navy has a figure of 1,606 while the IAF has the lowest figure of 192.
Giving statistics of shortage, Minister of State Subhash Bhamre informed the lok Sabha on Wednesday while the Army has a sanctioned strength of 49,933 officers but it has only 42,635 officers on its rolls thereby having a shortfall of 7,298. Similarly, the Navy has a sanctioned strength of 11,352 and it has 9,746 officers having a gap of 1,606. The IAF has an authorised strength of 12,584 and it has a shortfall of 192 only.
Elaborating upon the efforts to reduce shortages, the Minister said these include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career. Moreover, the government has taken various steps to make armed forces’ jobs attractive including improvement in promotion prospects in the Armed Forces.
However, the drive has not yielded the desired result as youth especially in metropolitan cities prefer to opt for corporate or Government jobs, officials said. Also, the rather tough life of an Army officer due to frequent postings and transfers especially those in combat arms discourage the youth to opt for a career in the Army. They also clarified that standards of selecting of officers cannot be whittled to meet the shortage as the armed forces are looking for certain qualities to lead men into battle and handle pressure.
Meanwhile, Bhamre also informed the House that to attract youth including the rural youth to join the Armed Forces various steps are taken such as giving wide publicity to recruitment in Armed Forces through advertisement in print & audio-visual media.
Recruitment of Personnel Below Officers Ranks (PBORs) in Army is carried out through Open Rally System being conducted regularly throughout the country. Efforts are made to cover the entire country, including remote and tribal areas. In Navy, regular recruitment drives are undertaken, covering all states and regions for recruitment of sailors. Recruitment of Airmen in Air Force is on all India basis through scheduled selection tests. In addition, recruitment rallies are also conducted in different parts of the country, including tribal areas. Incidentally, there is no shortage in PBOR.