In Noida, the incident of Pradeep Mehra, a young man running on the road at midnight to join the army, has once again brought the army recruitment into the limelight. For the last two years, big elections are being held in the country between Corona, but recruitment in the army is closed. Meanwhile, the news is that the number of vacant posts of soldiers in the army has exceeded one lakh.
The government has also removed the provisions of the Disaster Management Act from the Corona epidemic, but it is not yet clear when the army recruitment will open. Recently, in response to a question in Rajya Sabha on this issue, it has been accepted by the government that recruitment rallies could not be held in the army during 2021-21 and 2021-22 due to Corona epidemic.
50-60 thousand soldiers retire every year
According to experts, 50-60 thousand soldiers retire from the Indian Army every year. And there are almost the same number of new recruitments. For this 90-100 recruitment rallies are organized in a year, covering different parts of the country. One rally covers six-eight districts. But these rallies have been closed for the last two years. Rallies are crowded, so the rallies were called off. But all the crowded events, including elections, have been happening. Officially, 81 thousand posts of jawans have been said by the Ministry of Defense to be vacant by January 1, 2022, but now this number is expected to increase to more than one lakh.
When did the recruitment happen?
In a reply given in Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for Defense Ajay Bhatt, it has been said that 53,431 soldiers were recruited in the army in 2018-19. While 80,572 jawans were recruited in 2019-20 but after that the recruitment is closed due to Corona epidemic.
The longer the delay, the greater the crisis
Army sources said that due to non-recruitment, the backlog of vacant posts is increasing. He said that once the recruitment process is completed, it takes at least two years to train the jawan and make him eligible for deployment. Therefore, the longer the delay in this matter, the more the crisis of vacant posts will increase.
Let us inform that in the past, CDS General Bipin Rawat had said before the parliamentary committee that the number of soldiers in the army can be reduced by up to three lakhs in the coming times as the process of restructuring in the army is going on.