The supreme sacrifice made by first Agniveer Akshay Laxman Gawate who lost his life in the line of duty at the Siachen glacier has sparked speculation and directed fresh attention towards the Agnipath-Agniveer scheme. Incidentally, similar to Agniveer Gawate—who was serving in one of the most hostile environmental conditions at high altitudes—a few weeks ago, another Agniveer, Amritpal Singh lost his life while on duty in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Agnipath-Agniveer scheme was launched by the government last year to reform and restructure the Indian armed forces of 1.4 million strength to make the military younger, leaner, more agile, and versatile, making it better equipped for handling complex state-of-the-art technology clubbed with the ability to maintain rapid mobility and quick-response to match with the need of ultra-modern futuristic warfare challenges and security concern to the country. The government also intended to restrict expanding financial allocation of pay allowances and pensions of defence forces in the future.
However, nations should not consider defence expenses as a burden on the system. Robust armed forces are the need of the hour and one of the most crucial and important pillars of nation-building, development, growth, and international standing. Under this reform, the induction of non-officer cadres into the military was to be done through Agnipath schemes, except for very few cases of advanced technical entries. The age limit for enrollment was decided at 17 and a half to 21 years at the time of induction and all Agniveers are to undergo vigorous military training for the period of six months, followed by subsequent deployment in operational areas as a component of regular forces. Agniveers are to be subjected to continuous on-the-job training. The total period of their military duties will be restricted to four years.
As per the scheme, these cadres are identified separately as Agniveers and not as soldiers. They are to be given a fixed amount as remuneration of Rs 30,000 monthly during the first year and Rs 33,360, and Rs 40,000 monthly during the second, third, and fourth years. Of this, 30% will be deducted as a Corpus fund which will be returned to them along with an equal and additional amount added by the government at the time of completion of their tenures. Agniveers are not entitled to receive increments, Dearness Allowances, and other benefits during service as applicable to the regular soldiers except certain field allowances and medical facilities. However, they are not entitled to military service pay despite shouldering identical responsibilities and deployment under military law and at par with regular military personnel. Though during service they will be protected by insurance and health schemes.
In the same manner, Agniveer is not entitled to any post-tenure benefits of ex-servicemen including gratuity, pension, health, priority in education, and canteen facilities for self and dependents due to obvious as they are inducted into a new category of Agniveer with fixed tenure and not as regular military personnel. In case of loss of life while in service on bonafide duty, the next of kin will be provided a one-time ex-gratia of Rs 44 lakh, insurance cover of Rs 48 lakh as well as full pay for an unserved period up to four years including full Seva Nidhi Component including interest and contribution by the government. However, there is no provision of family pension and other service benefits like ECHS to the spouse or children of the diseased as extended to the next of kin of the soldier. In case of medical disability attributed to or aggravated by service conditions, Agniveers are also entitled to receive ex-gratia between Rs 44 lakh to Rs 15 lakh based on the extent of disability.
In addition, full pay for an unserved period of up to four years (after the date of the disability) including the Seva Nidhi Component will also be provided. However, there is no provision of disability pension to him in the future nor he shall be eligible for regular military enrollment in the future. After four years of tenure, the Agniveer will be discharged from duty. Of this only 25% of Agniveers will be re-inducted by another process into the regular armed forces and their service will start from the date of re-induction as a soldier with the effective minimum age of 21 and half years to 25 years for regular soldiers in the future.
This will affect and redefine their promotion prospects and service benefits as well as pension and gratuity-related issues that are linked with the duration of physical colour service. There is a need to have well-defined policies and guidelines for the selection of Agniveer into the service as a regular soldier in the future including a number of attempts for them to compete in a very transparent manner with an equal chance of an opportunity to each and every one. Another very crucial and most significant issue is linked with the future composition of troops in armed forces in terms of the ratio of the number of Agniveer and regular troops, NCO and JCO, and equivalent in all three branches of armed forces so as to ensure optimal operational equilibrium in the services.
Though the present proposal is intended to have at least equal ratio of regular troops and Agniveers after ten years, in an ideal situation this ratio should not be more than 1:4 or 25% Agniveers and the rest regular soldiers to ensure higher number of Agniveers do not deprive the strength of mature and experienced personnel in the armed forces while deployed in a highly demanding operational situations so as to sustain and able to deliver under highly hostile and strenuous physical and professional conditions which is very much evident from the experience gained out of ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict where Russian troops lagged behind their desired results as their contractual, short-tenure troops were ill-trained and unable to provide favourable outputs in tactical operations.
Releasing trained personnel after four years is amounts to losing huge dividends in the future. The effective befitting rehabilitation of Agniveers in a civil environment indeed will be a herculean task for the government. The rehabilitation of Agniveers belonging to professional and technical branches like Para medical, Education, logistics, clerical and engineering, communication, navigation, and shipping branches is likely to be relatively smooth though armed forces need such manpower to be retained. The main concern remains with Agniveers belonging to fighting arms like Infantry, Armoured, Artillery, military police, and other executive administrative branches.
These personnel are highly trained in advanced military gadgets and extremely useful for crucial operations however there are hardly any equivalent opportunities that exist in the civil environment as witnessed in the case of regular soldiers post-retirement. It is an absolute necessity to define and develop a strong policy and mechanism by the Central and respective state governments to absorb these Agniveers in Paramilitary forces as well as in all other relevant and respective fields including private sectors despite challenges of reservation. Therefore there is a need of the hour to review and modify strategies towards induction of Agniveers and their operational deployment service benefits as well as post-tenure rehabilitation processes to make them excellent soldiers and an asset to the country as responsible citizens.
Major General JKS Parihar, Sena Medal, Bar to Vishisht Seva Medal (Retd.) is a former Additional Director General, AFMS and an expert on Defence and International Strategic Affairs.
