What ails Indian army?
22 Aug 2012 7:21 AM IST
Get this. There is very little inherited, economic class division in the Indian Army between the officers and the men. But there is a scholastic class divide. For example, both the officer and the soldier could be sons of two ex-havildars.
But one could have been a good student that paved the way for him to officerdom. The other could be a less scholastically gifted, thus ended up as a jawan. And that could breed animus, illustrated a senior army official in the South Block headquarters Tuesday.
There are other problems too.
With modernisation, the joint family systems of the mostly rural Indian soldiers’ are breaking and nuclear families taking shape. Thus along with the advent of better communication facilities, is causing the soldier to shoulder more of the family concerns. This too is weighing heavy on the men when they are wide apart from the family.
For example, the 16th Cavalry unit soldier who recently committed suicide and a melee followed by his agitating compatriots against the officer, is a case in point. The soldier, now dead, was having a property dispute with his father. He wanted to be given his share right away, which the father was resisting.
Meanwhile, the father demanded money from him to get his sister married. He apparently told his father to deduct the amount from the share of the property he was demanding and give him the rest. But the father stopped taking his calls. The soldier called his brother. He too did not take his calls. That caused something to snap in his mind with the unfortunate result.
The senior army source claimed that the force is constantly innovating to stay ahead of the inter-personnel problems in the force. But with a severe officer shortage - a battalion having only eight or nine officers instead of its usual 21 – the soldiers cannot be mentored too effectively.
The army has begun deploying specialist psychologists from the New Delhi-based Defence Institute of Psychological Research at the brigade and division level to talk to the men. There has also been telephone help-lines established which a soldier in distress could call anonymously.
The army has also begun to extensively use religious teachers in every battalion, at units with more than 120 soldiers. Also, in the field, the officers are allowed to innovate to keep up the communication with the men – even privately and anonymously (with izzat being such a core issue in the Indian Army).
A plan is also being implemented to empower the junior commissioned officers to take up the burden of administrative work off the commissioned officers, who could then concentrate better on developing a method of ‘trust’ with the men.
With such multi-point approaches to deal with the problem, the army is clearly signaling that it is sufficiently worried and ready to take on the problem head on.
But one could have been a good student that paved the way for him to officerdom. The other could be a less scholastically gifted, thus ended up as a jawan. And that could breed animus, illustrated a senior army official in the South Block headquarters Tuesday.
There are other problems too.
With modernisation, the joint family systems of the mostly rural Indian soldiers’ are breaking and nuclear families taking shape. Thus along with the advent of better communication facilities, is causing the soldier to shoulder more of the family concerns. This too is weighing heavy on the men when they are wide apart from the family.
For example, the 16th Cavalry unit soldier who recently committed suicide and a melee followed by his agitating compatriots against the officer, is a case in point. The soldier, now dead, was having a property dispute with his father. He wanted to be given his share right away, which the father was resisting.
Meanwhile, the father demanded money from him to get his sister married. He apparently told his father to deduct the amount from the share of the property he was demanding and give him the rest. But the father stopped taking his calls. The soldier called his brother. He too did not take his calls. That caused something to snap in his mind with the unfortunate result.
The senior army source claimed that the force is constantly innovating to stay ahead of the inter-personnel problems in the force. But with a severe officer shortage - a battalion having only eight or nine officers instead of its usual 21 – the soldiers cannot be mentored too effectively.
The army has begun deploying specialist psychologists from the New Delhi-based Defence Institute of Psychological Research at the brigade and division level to talk to the men. There has also been telephone help-lines established which a soldier in distress could call anonymously.
The army has also begun to extensively use religious teachers in every battalion, at units with more than 120 soldiers. Also, in the field, the officers are allowed to innovate to keep up the communication with the men – even privately and anonymously (with izzat being such a core issue in the Indian Army).
A plan is also being implemented to empower the junior commissioned officers to take up the burden of administrative work off the commissioned officers, who could then concentrate better on developing a method of ‘trust’ with the men.
With such multi-point approaches to deal with the problem, the army is clearly signaling that it is sufficiently worried and ready to take on the problem head on.
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