In an effort to bring a change in the recruitment process of the Indian Armed Forces the Government of India recently launched the Agnipath Scheme. During the launch of the Agnipath scheme, the Centre had said youngsters between the age of 17-and-a-half and 21 years would be inducted for a four-year tenure in the Indian Army/Indian Air Force/Indian Navy.
As Agnipath Scheme faces backlash with protests taking place all over the country, the Government of India has decided to increase the upper age limit of Agniveers. However, as per the latest order by the Defence Minister, the Centre has decided to increase the upper age limit for recruitment under the “Agnipath” scheme to 23 years from 21 years for the year 2022. The age waiver will be given only one time for the proposed recruitment cycle for 2022. The decision was taken as no recruitment had taken place in the last two years.
“Cognizant of the fact that it has not been possible to undertake the recruitment during the last two years, the government has decided that a one-time waiver shall be granted for the proposed recruitment cycle for 2022,” a defence ministry spokesperson said.
Agneepath Scheme, since its launch, has completely divided various sections of the population. While some appreciated the scheme, others questioned the future of Agniveers after the set tenure of four years ends.
Agnipath scheme Highlights
- Under this scheme, a newly recruit soldier will be able to serve the country for only four years.
- The four-year tenure under the new scheme will include a training period of around two-and-a-half months to six months.
- The recruits will be provided a non-contributory life insurance cover of Rs.48 lakh for the duration of their engagement period in the armed forces.
- The monthly salary of an “Agniveer” in the first year of employment would be Rs.30,000 and the in-hand amount would be Rs.21,000 as Rs.9,000 would go to a corpus with an equal contribution from the government.
- Subsequently, the monthly salary in the second, third and fourth years will be Rs.33,000, Rs.36,500, and Rs.40,000.
- Each “Agniveer” will get an amount of Rs.11.71 lakh as the “Seva Nidhi Package” and it will be exempted from income tax.
- The scheme is also expected to cut the ballooning salary and pension bills of the armed forces as there will be no entitlement to gratuity and pensionary benefits.
- The recruitment process under the Agnipath scheme would start in 90 days.
The violent protests all over the country are taking place over the ‘Agnipath Scheme’ with thousands of youth hitting the streets demanding a rollback of the ‘contractualisation’ of jobs in the Indian Army. In many places like Bihar, Rajasthan, Gurugram etc., massive protests also erupted as people objected to the limited term of employment via Agnipath Recruitment Scheme.
The Centre issued several clarifications explaining that after the 4-year scheme, the Agniveers who won’t be retained by their respective services will be given government assistance to pursue entrepreneurship, education, other jobs etc. A financial package of Rs.11.72 lakh will be given to each of the Agniveers so that they can venture into entrepreneurship.
