Monday, February 10, 2014

Shortage of manpower in armed forces constant headache for MoD?

Reams of newspapers have been covered and a lot of airtime has been spent talking about the number crunch of officers in the Indian Army. But if numbers are anything to go by, the shortage are there cutting across rank and files of all the three services.

The Indian Army as of January 1, 2013 is short of 9590 officers and 22841 soldiers. Coupled with this is the Indian Navy with an Officers’ shortage and shortage of 13,373 sailors. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has a shortage of 783 officers and 3625 Airmen.


The chronic shortage of manpower in the armed forces has always been a cause of concern for the government which tried to lure talent to the armed forces with “improved pay structure” provided by 6th Pay Commission. However, there seems to be little success.

In a written reply given to the Lok Sabha on Monday, Defence Minister AK Antony said: “Some of the major reasons for vacancies in Armed Forces include accretion in force level from time to time, availability of multiple and lucrative alternative career avenues with the growth of nation’s economy, stringent selection criteria and difficult service conditions coupled with perceived high degree of risk.”

(For more understanding of this disillusionment of the people at large read the following stories Shortage of Officers impacing equation with JawansManpower Shortage a hurdle in Navy's Modernisation and IAF short of 363 pilots)

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