From foot soldiers to officers

NEW DELHI: A staggering shortage of junior officers in the Indian Army has been bothering the top brass. That is because the risks of running an undermanned force have become clearer over the years: a surge in cases of suicide and fratricide, and a drop in operational output.

To find a solution to the shortfall, the military has hit upon an idea: it wants to start pulling out more foot soldiers and training them to become officers.

By current estimates, the army is in desperate need of 11,238 officers. Most of the scarcity is in the ranks of lieutenant, captain, major and lieutenant-colonel — the men who are supposed to look after the battalions. Traditionally, each battalion is supposed to have a soldier to officer ratio of 800: 21. But the crunch is so severe that even in field areas of Kashmir and the Northeast, a battalion is being manned by 13 officers. The situation is worse in peace stations, where the strength has been reduced to 11.

Senior officers believe the scarcity has soured officer-soldier relations, which is thought to be a major factor in increasing stress-related incidents in the force. “Earlier, we used to have 21 officers in a battalion, all of whom were able to give personal attention to each soldier,” said a senior officer. “Besides, we never had so many operational commitments. Today, junior officers have to take up two serious challenges. Not only are they expected to handle more management-related issues, they are also being saddled with heavy operational commitments.”

The decision to choose its future officers from the ranks was taken after every other idea proved unworkable. Initially, the top brass had decided to raise the intake of officers in its institutes. For months, it carried out extensive surveys of the National Defence Academy, Indian Military Academy, and Officers Training Academy, but concluded that just taking in more students would not help. “Even if we were to step up our intake by 200 a year, it would take 50 years to offset the shortage,” a source said.

An officer involved in recruitments said there is no shortage of qualified youngsters wanting to become officers, “but just stepping up their recruitment into our academies, which have limited capacities, is not the solution”.

The force already takes in a couple of hundred soldiers annually to become officers, mainly through the Army Cadet College, Special Commissioned Officers, and Special List Commission.

As part of its in-house promotion plan, the army is looking to provide extensive training and orientation to soldiers and picking as many as possible to become officers. “In recent times, we have been getting a large number of qualified men in the ranks, many of whom could easily be given training and turned into officers,” said the senior officer. “Besides, a soldier can be trained more easily than a new recruit.”

Soon, army headquarters will circulate a comprehensive suggestion to all commands, and once the “feedback from the field comes in, we hope to unveil the policy”, the officer said.