Discussion around Tour of Duty Program of Army

The army has been grappling with financial constraints. It is estimated that more than 50% of budgetary allocation is being spent on pension and salary of army personnel. The ruling government plank of ‘One Rank One Policy’ (OROP) is taking a toll and leaves little space for modernization.

The Department of Military Affairs in June 2020, came up with the voluntary program of ‘Tour of Duty (ToD) for the Army citing resurgence of nationalism and unemployment. Tour of Duty is a three-year program which aims to recruit 100 army personnel.  Of the total selected, 25% would be completing three years, the remaining 25% for five and 50%, till the age of retirement. The program is still under contemplation.

Advantages associated with ToD.

1. As mentioned above, the ToD is mainly directed toward cutting down the cost of the army with the focus on its modernization. It is estimated that around 15 to 16 crore is spent on the making of a soldier, if trained for 14 years. A similar cost for soldiers under ToD would be Rs. 80-85 lakh.
2. It is reported that ToD would mainly be beneficial to CAPF (Central Armed Police Force). The soldiers recruited under Tour of Duty could also be directly inducted into CAPFs on completion of training.

Disadvantages associated with ToD.

1. Experts fear that training civilians in arms for a brief period may see a rise in violence in society. A Research work titled: “Does Combat experience foster Organisational Skill? Evidence from ethnic cleansing during the partition of India” by Steven Wilkinson and Saumitra Jha, bring out that the violence and mobilization were higher in districts having combat veterans.
2. All India Recruitment – Indian Army recruitments are based upon deciding the potential younger population from a region. The pan India recruitment for ToD would mean re-writing recruitment rules.
3. There is also the argument that three years time period may be too short to sustain high motivation of enlisted soldiers.
4. The Army would have to bear the loss if a soldier doesn’t join to serve till retirement post completion of training.