Agnipath: A Retirement Scheme and An Employment Scam!

15 Things You MUST Know about Agnipath! (Which Modi Govt and Godi Media Will Not Tell You)

Like Demonetization disaster or anti-farmer farm laws, BJP Government launched Agnipath scheme without any consultation, without any discussion in the Parliament or with the stakeholders.
Defence recruitment at the jawan level has remained stalled since 2019 with the excuse of COVID. Elections and huge rallies can take place, but not recruitments!
When everyone was expecting that the Government will fill the backlogs of the last two years, they came up with Agnipath! It aims to recruit people aged 17 and a half years to twenty-one years for a period of 4 years. So, it is contractual job without any security!
25% of those recruited will get permanent jobs after 4 years while the remaining 75% will not. What will happen to these 75%?
There is no space for promotion and higher salaries, as they are leaving just after 4 years. Earlier it was 17 years, which could be extended.
They will not receive any pension.
They will also not get ex – serviceman status.
Because the job is for 4 years, the training period is only for 6 months – which is not at all adequate for specialized tasks in army.
The scheme was not even endorsed by staunch BJP supporters. Just to give an example, one of the loudest pro-Modi voices from among the retired military top brass, Major General GD Bakshi, has tweeted how he is shocked by this scheme.
They are joining army at a very young age, without completing their education. If they are going to leave army just after 4 years, how they are going to compete in the job market with others already with graduate and post-graduate degree?
Unemployment is all time high now. Army is a source of employment, especially for students from poor and rural background. Agnipath will further skyrocket unemployment.
One of the justifications behind the Agnipath scheme is cut the budget for pension of army personnel. The Government can waste crores of money for Central Vista, but doesn’t want to pay the army men pensions!
Further, the BJP shamelessly asks for vote highlighting the sacrifices of soldiers, but it denies the same soldiers dignified employment and pension benefits.
The Government has said that there will be special job opportunities for the released Agniveers. This line of thought is ridiculous to say the least. Even those military personnel who have years of training and experience (as opposed to “Agniveers” who have 6 months of training and 4 years of experience) have a difficulty finding a job post retirement. Firstly, only a tiny fraction of these find jobs and secondly the quality of jobs they find is horrendous – the best job being that of a home guard for most. If this is the state of those who are experienced, then what will be the state of those who are far less experienced i.e. the “Agniveers”?
The Government said that Agniveers will get special priority in CAPF (Central Armed Police Forces) recruitment but the government’s record in CAPF recruitment has been abysmal to say the least. There were only 10,000 recruitments made in 2020 compared to 1 lakh + vacancies. There has been an 80% decline in CAPF recruitment since 2017.