MINISTER OF DEFENCE (SHRI MANOHAR PARRIKAR)
(a) to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 343 FOR ANSWER ON 20.3.2015
(a) & (b): Details of the shortage of personnel in the Armed Forces service-wise are as under:
Army Navy Air Force (As on 1.1.2015) (As on 31.1.2015) Officers# Other Ranks$ Officers# Sailors Officers# Airmen
9642 24356 1322 11257 152 5540
(As on 1.2.2015) (As on 1.3.2015) #excluding medical and dental branch.
$against this shortage, 66502 are already under training. presently 6159 recruits are already under training.
Women officers are part of the Officers cadre and no separate cadre exists for them.
Government has taken a number of measures to encourage the youth to join the Armed Forces, including sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career. Further, Government has taken various steps to make armed forces jobs attractive. These include implementation of recommendations of the VI Central Pay Commission with improved pay structure, additional family accommodation through Married Accommodation Project (MAP) and improvement in promotion prospects in the Armed Forces.
(c) Details of officers / PBORs who have exited / released from the Defence Services during the last three years are as under:
Year Army Navy Air Force (As on 1.1.2015) (As on 31.1.2015) Officers# Other Ranks$ Officers Sailors Officers Airmen
2012 285(Women-3) 12928 265 (Women-14) 3186 286 (Women-18) 4513 2013 228 (Women-2) 14252 237 (Women-17) 2299 228 (Women-20) 5576 2014 125 (Women-1) 12703 216 (Women-9) 3154 201 (Women-21) 3811
#data is of Pre-mature Retirement / Resignation.
$pre-mature retirement. only one batch of sailors was inducted in the year 1998 against the standard norm of two batches, thereby resulting in lesser exits 15 year down the line in 2013.
The major reasons for seeking premature retirement include compassionate grounds; medical grounds; domestic reasons; other Government Civil / Armed Forces Employment; education grounds and supersession.
(d) Women personnel in the Armed Forces are not being deployed for combat operations, fighter stream of Air Force and on naval warships. Induction of women in combat duties has not been recommended by the studies carried out by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQIDS) in 2006 and High Level Tri-Services Committee in 2011.
(e) Government has taken various steps to check attrition rate which include implementation of recommendation of the VI Central Pay Commission with improved pay structure, additional family accommodation through Married Accommodation Project (MAP) and improvement in promotion prospects in Armed Forces.
Further, Government has taken various measures to create appropriate environment for defence personnel, so that they can perform their duty without any mental stress. Some of these include improvement in living and working conditions through provision of better infrastructure and facilities, liberalized leave policy, establishing a grievance redressal mechanism, provision of psychological counselling by qualified counsellors and conduct of yoga and meditation as part of unit routine.
