In a state with high unemployment, Agniveer — officially known as the Agnipath Yojana — has led to changes in aspirations of young Haryana men seeking job security.
Pawan Jangra, a native of Pabra in Haryana’s Hisar district, always dreamt of joining the Indian Army but as he was close to achieving his childhood dream, it became his last option. He is now focusing on police jobs such as constable, relegating his dream job in Army to the end of his options. He is enrolled in an academy near Hisar that trains boys from rural background for the armed forces.
Like Pawan, several other Army aspirants now prefer central police jobs over the Army because of restrictive options linked to Angiveer intake.
“Even if we are selected under Agniveer scheme, our struggle would begin after release on completion of four years. It is better to work hard and choose police service or other similar jobs where we can at least serve till the age of superannuation,” says Deepak, a Hansi resident undergoing training at one of the academies.
Joginder Punia, who runs a coaching academy in Hisar district, claims the number of applications under Agniveer in the Army recruitment office, Hisar, was around 22,000 in 2023. It has dropped to around 6,500 this year.
“Army is no longer the first choice for the boys from rural areas of Haryana. I had two boys in my academy who were selected for Army under Agniveer scheme but, after the results for Group-D posts in Haryana were declared, they decided to opt for the Group-D post, which is equivalent to a peon’s job, because it is a permanent and secure job,” adds Punia.
Pawan Berwal, a former soldier who is now running a coaching academy in Jind district, says that other ‘belt’ services (paramilitary and state police) used to be the last choice for youngsters in Haryana and they chose to opt for these only on passing the Army enrolment age. However, now the Army is their last choice, so much so that the craze to go abroad has replaced it.
“When the Army was selecting youngsters based on the old pattern, prior to the Agniveer scheme, we used to have 400-500 residential students preparing for the Army physical and written tests. Now, this number has come down to 40 only. Youngsters in Haryana are preferring to go abroad after spending Rs 20-30 lakh so that they can get citizenship of another country in 3-4 years. That is a more secure option,” he explains.
Dinesh Sangwan, who retired from the Indian Navy, is director of one of the academies in Rohtak district. He recalls a time when young men came armed with a strong ‘sifarish’ (recommendation) to get coaching for military recruitment. All his five hostels used to have 100% occupancy and aspirants even lived in nearby villages as paying guests to be able to train under him.
“Now, very few students come to prepare for the Army and that too as their last choice. Around 6-7 academies in Haryana have shut down after the implementation of the Agniveer scheme. Boys from Haryana have a natural tendency to join armed forces, but they do not want to spoil the prime of their lives where there is no security after serving for four years,” adds Sangwan.
TOI sent a detailed questionnaire to the headquarters of the Ambala recruiting zone, which looks after Agniveer recruitment in the region, but received no response despite several reminders.
Indian Army has been the largest employer for youngsters from Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh with around one-fourth of soldiers selected yearly across the country hailing from this region.
Per central govt data tabled in Parliament in Feb 2022, during the last recruitment drive held in 2019-20 for selection of jawans, a total of 18,798 youngsters were selected from this region.
However, after suspension of the Army’s enrolment drive for two years due to Covid-19 pandemic, around 37,000 youngsters from the region were deprived of these jobs. Thereafter, Centre launched its much-touted Agniveer scheme.
In all, 78,692 aspirants were selected by Army from across statesin the last recruitment drive completed per the old pattern in 2019-20. Thus, the region alone sent around 24% of the total recruits selected from all over the country.
As per data, the intake of soldiers from Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal in 2017-18 was 4,988, 3,634 and 2,376, respectively, which increased to 7,813, 5,097 and 5,883, respectively, in 2019-20. There were three seats for UT Chandigarh, and these were increased to six in 2019-20. With this, a total of 18,798 young men from these three states and UT Chandigarh were selected by the Army in its last recruitment drive in 2019-20.