Armed forces short of 1.36 lakh personnel, Centre tells Parliament

Representative image of Indian Army soldiers patrol at the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan in Poonch, about 250 kilometres from Jammu. (Image: AP Photo/Channi Anand)

India's armed forces are facing a shortage of 1.36 lakh personnel as against their authorised strength, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt has told Parliament even as its Agnipath scheme to overhaul the recruitment process of soldiers comes under fire from the Opposition.

In a written reply to a question on July 18 in the Rajya Sabha, Bhatt said the army had a shortage of 64,482 personnel as on January 1, 2020. This number had nearly doubled to 1.16 lakh as on January 1, 2022.

In the navy, the shortage was 13,597 as on May 31, while the air force was short of 5,723 as on July 1.

The minister added that personnel shortages were dynamic and could be due to the need for manpower requirements, retirements, premature retirements, and invalidation.

On average, the army recruits 60,000 people in a year, the minister said. The number for the navy is 5,332 and for the air force, it is 5,723.

The minister’s disclosure on shortage comes almost a month after the introduction of the Agnipath scheme that triggered fiery protests for reducing the service term for the bulk of Agniveers to four years.

The Supreme Court on July 19 transferred all public interest litigations pending before it and various high courts against Agnipath to the Delhi High Court.

The government has said the Agnipath scheme will help in not just providing job opportunities to the youth but also make the armed forces younger, "provide a fresh lease of 'Josh' and 'Jazba' whilst at the same time bring about a transformational shift towards a more tech savvy Armed Forces–which is indeed the need of the hour".

The critics of the plan say the government is trying to lower its expenses, with Agniveers, as soldiers who will be recruited through the plan would be called, will not get a pension.

In response to another question on July 18 in the Rajya Sabha, Bhatt said 20.41 lakh ex-servicemen received a pension in 2021, up 11 percent from 2017.

In FY22, the Centre spent Rs 1.17 lakh crore on defence pensions. The number is estimated to rise 2.4 percent in FY23 to Rs 1.20 lakh crore.

Parliament's monsoon session began on July 18 and will conclude on August 12.