Agnipath scheme will help reduce age profile of armed forces: Lt Gen

Lt General A Arun, General Commanding Officer, Dakshin Bharat Area, on Wednesday said that Agnipath scheme is an opportunity for youngsters to serve in the armed forces. This will also reduce the age profile of the Armed forces.

“At present, the average age in Armed forces is 32. Agnipath scheme will help reduce it thus making it an optimal balance of youth and experience. It’ll also infuse more youngsters into the Army, Navy and Air Force and will train them for improved battle preparedness,” said Arun, while addressing the media.

The Union government launched Agnipath to recruit youngsters between the age group of 17.5 and 21 years into the armed forces. The recruited youngsters, called Agniveers, will be given training and a job for 4 years after which they’d relieved from the system. After the 4-year period, only 25% of them will be absorbed into the armed sources.

However, there were criticisms that after 4 years, 75% of the Agniveers would be left jobless at their prime age of mid-20s, for which Arun said, “Agniveers are paid well. With close to zero expenditure, they can save at least Rs 10,000 per month even if going by conservative calculations. They’d also be paid a corpus of Rs 11.71 lakh after 4 years of their service. So they’d have around Rs 20 lakh with which they can start a small business and provide employment to few others.”

The scheme seems to encourage earning at a young age, rather than

Even during their 4-year service, Agniveers can study via distance education. By the end of their service, they’d have completed a degree — Lt General A Arun, General CO,

Dakshin Bharat Area

pursuing a higher education. “During their service, they can study through distance education. By the end of their service, they’d have completed a degree,” he explained.

Arun also said that jawans will no longer be recruited through direct recruitment rallies and only Agniveers will be inducted as jawans after 4 years.