Should India consider conscription?
A question that came up during the “Saluting Our Heroes” pre-launch meet-up y’day was “Should India consider conscription?”
- Would it be practical considering the size of our population?
- Would it help foster a sense of national pride?
- Would it help strengthen our national identity?
- Would it help bring down the walls between rural/urban India, the states, the regions and the communities?
Would it help manage the worrying shortage of officers in the Indian Army (almost 25%)? Should it be limited to certain groups of people (e.g. civil servants)?
Would it lower the standards and quality of recruits in the army?
What do you think? Comments and thoughts, welcome
Related Reading:  India mulls draft to augment officer corps by Sudha Ramachandran
Copying some comments over from the fb page:
Priya Vk Singh Many of these objectives will be better served by making participation in NCC compulsory at the school level, and having NCC performance count in college admissions.
Prahalad Appaji What are the modifications? What if it’s institutionally encouraged, just like Voluteerism/community work is encouraged in US academics resulting in students gettings credits which affects their grades/future. That would be actually do wonders in India as more bodies will get involved in in all sorts of Volunteering.
Ajan Kancharla Conscription?? Should’ve put that in simple english so that everyone would be able to understand.
*Conscription: is the compulsory enrollment of people to some sort of national service*
This Compulsory Enrollment might result in a few complications & preferably some modifications:-
1. The bribe-taking might increase or decrease.
2. The present NCC needs a lot of modifications, lets take USA or Russia where they have Scout badges and levels. Change the name of NCC to something much more pompous or posh
3. This modified NCC should be a part of the school/college curriculum where it can start at an early age like 5th or 6th Std. And the “Conscription” should be a 1yr draft as the Russians have it. Mandatory for all the Males in between 18-27.
4. Change the look of the NCC site (http://nccindia.nic.in/), my cousin is in 12th and he can design a much better site than that. I don’t understand this morbid attraction of the Indian Govt. to fugly looking sites. See the difference for yourself. Compare it to USA’s Scout Site http://www.scouting.org/
5. We have such talented people in India who’re capable enough to design websites with amazing look and feel why resort to such silly designs?
***
Instead of conscription, making NCC compulsory in Schools and Colleges would be ideally a better approach. But the current form of NCC needs a thorough overhauling, some of which as follows:-
1]Awareness amongst students
2]Incentives to encourage students to join
3]Government subsidies to adequately provide for the essentials like uniform, belt, shoes, socks, caps, nourishments after everyday drills/parades
4]Government to bear cost of participating in Camps including mode of transport
5]Able instructors, perhaps retired from the Services, must be recruited with decent salaries for training purposes.
6]Coordination with the 3 Service Battalion offices for proposals of camps, civic responsibilities, traffic alienation etc.
7]Similar coordination with Police, CRPF and Special Police HQs for proposals as above.
It is nowhere compared to how it was in the 70s or 80 during which time I was closely associated with it, won ‘best cadet’ badge twice, won the .22 rifle shooting competition for the District, attended several state and national camps and in short enjoyed the goods and bads of a ‘sort of’ army life during those 6 years.
These were some of the things I personally did during my times as a student cadet with relish.
@ Shantanu,
Extremely important and thought provoking idea.
We certainly need the draft, because the reality in India is that few people are making all the sacrifices and the rest(us) are benefiting from their sacrifice without pitching in. And we have a third group of mercenaries who call themselves ‘liberal’ and eat out of fascist ISI.
This situation is not tenable, we can already see the cracks appearing. 25% of the officer ranks remaining vacant is a serious situation.
Here is an excerpt from an article by Rajeev Srinivasan in Rediff
“There is one way to sort of fix all three of these problems at one go: create a draft, compulsory military service for young men (and perhaps women) after they finish college. I suspect that if socialite evenings in Delhi are taken up with worries about whether their offspring will make it through the day, the Jammu and Kashmir problem and the Northeast problem will be solved in approximately one week. NIMBY, as they say, Not In My Back Yard.
Each of our fat-cat politicians will suddenly have an epiphany that the soldiers who perish with such monotonous regularity are each of them Some Mother’s Son, as in the 1996 film about Northern Ireland. Some mother grieves for each sepoy who falls to a hail of terrorist bullets; for each grunt blown up by an improvised explosive device. ”
http://inhome.rediff.com/news/2000/aug/31rajeev.htm
Whatever confidence today I’ve gained is all thanks to 3 years in NCC Naval Wing during my college days. Like many other guys, joined NCC lured by someone’s comments that NCC had lot of good looking girls. Well that little bit of incentive actually transformed my life to the extent of getting me a job, inspite of me being quite average in academics. Went on to represent Karnataka and Goa as the Best Cadet in the All India Republic Day parade in 1996-97. Unbelievable experience. It was the beginning of an adventure life, that I continue to pursue to-date.
I seriously believe Scouts and Guides should be made compulsory in school and NCC in the college days. This inculcates a sense of adventure among kids. They are forced to be independent as well as respect everything they have around them, when in camps. And the day to day activities, beginning from physical exercise in the morning to training/participation in cultural events practice in the evenings, instills in growing kids a sense of pride and patriotism.
But all these training should result in providing the NCC cadet a chance to pursue career in the armed forces (military & para-military) if he/she is interested in a much more forth coming manner, which at times I find isn’t the case. NCC cadets are looked down upon in the SSB boards, which kind of is a deterrent. I’m quoting all these from my personal experience. Have had the privilege to attend SSB interview in Bhopal and Coast Guard interview in Chennai.
I think the responsibility of deciding what kids should experience should lie only with the parents. I don’t believe the state has any right to conscript people against their will.
Good Idea ..but before that make NCC mandatory. In this way we can also keep track of what youngsters are upto and help them to be active towards the nation.
Shantanuji I Should have been an Army Officer, but couldnt get beyond NDA written tests, failed in the orals/medicals. My inspiration to join forces came because i was NCC throughout my school/Pre-Univ life. Got an Award from CM as the Best Cadet, but my next gen do not seem to value these.
We should mandate NCC in Schools/Colleges & should ensure 1 yr of service in any Forces/Paramilitary strictly.
@ BJP
“I don’t believe the state has any right to conscript people against their will.”
If so, then those people are not entitled to the protection and citizenship rights provided by the state. Those free loaders should not be living in the state without their contribution.
Today is Kargil – Vijay Diwas day (26/07). Hope people who visit this webpage remember to salute our war heroes. I wish to share some excellent reads here.
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/Kargil/Nachiketa.html
http://www.india-today.com/itoday/19990830/defence.html
Vande Mataram
BJP – Oh really!!! This is not about deciding kids experience. This is about a nation worrying how to protect itself. When there is shortage, the country has to manage by using its resources. Singapore does it. So does Germany. Your motive is to disagree to everything written here and you have taken your route.
@2bornot2b,
A lot of countries have conscription. Israel, Sweden, Norway an US also had during World war II. Some of those Generals who served in World war II like Eisenhower went on to become presidents of US. Joe Biden’s son served in Iraq/Afghan.
It is only in India that we think a half Italian is the rightful heir.
The idea seems good to me. The money we are spending on NCC / NSS and such will be sufficient for this.
It will have impact on discipline and equality of youth who are going to take over the nation. In my opinion after 10th or the age of 16 which ever is attained first, every one must be enlisted for minimum 2 years.