Faced with an alarming shortage of over 15,000 officers in its ranks, the Armed forces have proposed to the Government to accord the status of ex-servicemen to Short Service Commission (SSC) officers.
The accordance of such a status means an SSC officer, once he retires, will enjoy lifelong medical benefits for self and family members, canteen facilities and other monetary incentives — much like his regular counterpart.
The measure is aimed at attracting more and more youth to don the uniform, which will, in turn, enable the forces to overcome the shortage of officers.
Terming it as a major incentive to motivate the youth, sources said the Armed forces were also thinking of giving pension benefits to SSC officers in the next few years. However, this measure would take some time to fructify as it involved substantial financial allocation, they said.
Officials said once the Defence Ministry gives its nod, the proposal would then be put up before the Union Cabinet for final approval.
Sources said the move is in line with the Army’s long-term plan to induct more SSC officers and reduce the number of regular officers. “It would help in maintaining the motivation level of the officer cadre and give an officer a chance to opt out if he so desires. A regular officer, however, has to serve for 20 years and he cannot quit earlier,†sources said.
The SSC Officers scheme came into force in the wake of the 1962 war with China. Initially, these officers served for five years and came out. Over the last few years, the Government increased the tenure to 10 and finally to 14 years. Women officers are also inducted into the Armed forces as SSC officers.
The Army, at present, has one Officers Training Academy (OTA) for SSC officers at Chennai, from where 2,000 officers pass out every year. In order to increase the intake of SSC officers, the Government has given the nod for another OTA at Gaya, Bihar and sanctioned `350 crores for setting up its infrastructure. The new academy is likely to be functional by next year end and will churn out 750 cadets every year.
The primary factors for youth not opting for a career in the Armed forces was its tough service conditions besides lack of growth as compared to the civil services and the corporate sectors, sources said.
In fact, the shortage of officers was more at the cutting edge level of young officers who are in the thick of the battle. The Kargil conflict in 1999 brought out this fact starkly as most of the commanding officers and their second-in-command were in their late 30s and they had to fight in very rugged and rough terrain.
Compared to India, armies of the US, Israel and for that matter Pakistan have a much younger profile at the fighting level. Realising the “graying†of the cutting edge of the army, the Government instituted the AV Singh committee to suggest ways for faster promotions and remove stagnation in the ranks of Major, Lt Colonel and Colonel.
Its recommendations were implemented three years back to remove these bottlenecks and make a career in the Armed forces more attractive. Moreover, the Sixth Pay Commission also substantially increased salaries of Armed forces officers.
While the Government initiated several schemes over the last decade to attract the youth to the armed forces, the gap of 12,000 officers in the army did not come down. In fact, this figure stood for the last five years despite schemes like doing away with written examination for candidates holding National Cadet Corps ‘C†certificate and similar steps.
The Armed forces have even adopted measures like sustained image projection and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a career in the Services, participation in career fairs and exhibitions, advertisements in print and electronic media and motivational lectures in schools and colleges among others.