Army Offers Military Internship for Youth
The Indian Army is thinking of a model called the“Tour of Duty”, which will allow common citizens to voluntarily join the army for 3 years.
The Indian Army is thinking of a model called the“Tour of Duty”. This model will allow common citizens to voluntarily join the army for 3 years. It will be like an ‘internship’. This will be different from the permanent army position. On 13th May, Army Chief General M M Naravane said this idea came up after the army visited colleges and universities. They found that the youth were excited to experience army life. Gen Naravane said, “When our officers spoke to the youths in colleges, we felt that they want to experience army life, but not as a career.” With this they got an idea to give the opportunity to work in the army for 2 – 3 years.
He further added, “This way we will benefit by getting younger manpower in the army and the society will benefit by getting people who are disciplined and have acquired the army culture.” Officials explained that the proposed model of Tour of Duty (ToD) will be implemented on a trial basis with limited vacancies. If the model is successful, the vacancies would be increased. Officials said that the cost of training, pay and allowances, etc for an officer who works for 14 years under the Short Service Commission is about 6 crore. Compared to that the cost for the people joining under ToD would be Rs 80-85 lakhs.
The army believes that the savings from this can be used in the modernization of equipment. To make the ToD more attractive, the army is also thinking of giving a “token” lump sum amount to officers and jawans exiting from the ToD scheme. If the person in ToD suffers in the battle, benefits of battle casualty could be given. With “Tour of Duty”, the army is trying to attract youth from top academic institutes such as IITs.
