Agnipath scheme: ‘Want to harness qualities of youth; training methodology will be tailor-made for them,’ Lt Gen Arvind Walia

Lt Gen Walia was interacting with the media in the backdrop of the Union government’s latest defence recruitment initiative, Agnipath.

The Ministry of Defence on Tuesday announced its new ‘Agnipath’ initiative for recruitment of soldiers across the three services. Under this defence recruitment reform, which was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security, close to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually. Of the total annual recruits, around 25 per cent of each batch of Agniveers will be enrolled in the regular cadre of the Armed Forces and would be required to serve an engagement period of 15 years.

When asked about the sufficiency of six months of training for Agniveers under the scheme, as against the present training durations which are longer, Lt Gen Walia said, “If we look at the world’s best Armies, their basic military training period varies anywhere between 14 to 24 weeks. Once they get absorbed further, then advanced military training is conducted. We too are adopting this model, keeping in mind the higher educational level, technical capabilities, and wider understanding of the world view of the youth today. We want to harness all these qualities of the youth today. Therefore, our training methodology will be tailor-made for this. We are going to use advanced tools of training like simulators.”

Speaking about the scheme, the General said, “Among the notable benefits of the scheme is that the profile of the Army will be more youthful. From the average age of 32 years, we will go to 26 years in the next four to five years. The technical threshold of the incoming strength will increase, because the aim is to recruit skilled youth from ITI background, among others. There will be an optimal balance between young and experienced strength. Because it will be an all
India process from now on, the base of the recruitment will increase.”

The Defence Ministry has said that enrollment under the scheme will be based on ‘All India All Class’ basis and the eligible age will be from 17.5 to 21 years. Speaking about the operational advantage of the scheme, General Walia said, “Our forces are deployed on two live borders on our Western and Eastern flank. And within the country, our forces have been conducting counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operation from decades. This scheme will certainly not affect our operation preparedness but on the contrary, because of the reduced age profile, it will prove to be advantageous to us on the cutting edge. The younger the soldier, the more are the risk-taking abilities. Operational preparedness is a factor of morale, motivation, training and junior leadership in the Army.”

The Union government has said that recruitment under the Agnipath scheme will be undertaken through an online centralised system for all three services, with specialised rallies and campus interviews from recognised technical institutes such as Industrial Training Institutes and National Skills Qualifications Framework, among others.

Answering a question on recruitment of ITI-trained youth, General Walia said, “The Army conducts its own specialised training for the trades which are not available in civil domain. But there are trades like driver, welder, carpenter, radio operator etc, which are common to both military and civil domain. So, we can reduce our training period by picking up recruits straight from the ITIs. Also, there is already a proposal for 10th pass recruits, for facilitating their 12th pass certificates under the National Education Policy. Skill-based certificates will be issued when they exit from the Army. Additional credit points will be issued if they want to pursue higher education or look for other work opportunities.” Upon the completion of four years of service, based on organisational requirement, Agniveers will be offered an opportunity to apply for permanent enrollment in the Armed Forces. These applications will be considered in a centralised manner based on objective criteria including performance during their four-year engagement period. Nearly 25 per cent of each batch will be enrolled for further service.

“We are given to understand that the system of monitoring performance during the four years will be centrally controlled. It will be an objective and fair system. It will start from the first year onwards. And because of the pan-India process, the influence of local units will be nullified. All those recruited in a batch will be assessed on a common platform.” said General Walia.