Recruitment in Indian Armed Forces
Every year thousands of candidates dream of joining the Indian Armed Forces – Army, Air Force, and Navy. Recruitment of Commissioned Officers in the Armed Forces is mainly through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) under Permanent Commission. For Technical Branches, Women special entry scheme, and NCC special entry scheme and service, recruitment is made directly through the respective Recruiting Directorates for the Army under Short Service Commission. Anyone can apply for a job in the Indian army, irrespective of his caste, religion, or class. The only criteria for recruitment are age and educational, physical, and medical standards as prescribed by the Indian army. However, there have been some changes in the recruitment system and this change is termed Tour of Duty (TOD). Here, in this post, we give you a brief insight into the Army Tour of Duty (TOD).
What is the Army Tour of Duty (TOD)?
The three military services, namely the Army, Air Force, and Navy, are about to undergo some revolutionary changes in the recruitment system.
Tour of Duty (ToD) is a recruitment model for short-term recruitment of jawans into the three Services of the armed forces for a period of four years. It is expected to be rolled out soon and the official announcement is expected in the next month.
Recruitment in all three services, namely, Army, Navy, and Air Force will be through the ToD route only. The four-year tenure will include six months of training and three and half years of service.
Candidates recruited under ToD would get salaries and benefits almost similar to regular personnel. The Government is also planning post-ToD career opportunities for jawans and also to award them a degree or certification as those relieved from service would be 21-22 years of age only. Application of ToD will significantly reduce pay and pensions and release funds for modernization, especially for the Army, which has negatively skewed revenue to the capital ratio in the budgetary allocation.
After the tenure of four years, the jawans have to leave their job. Then after, they have to undergo another round of recruitment for permanent commission. There will be no automatic up-gradation to the permanent commission.
Why Army Tour of Duty (ToD)?
At present, the average age of personnel in a battalion in the Army is 35-36 years. However post-implementation of ToD, the average age will come down to 25-26 years in 4-5 years.
On average, around 60,000 personnel from Other Ranks (OR) retire from the Army every year and the stop in recruitment has already started showing its impact. They also retire much early around an average age of 35-37 years and the pension continues for a long time. The overall pension burden of ORs and JCOs is much higher than that of officers due to the large numbers and ToD will help reduce that burden to a great extent.
How to prepare for Armed Forces
Irrespective of the recruitment process in the Indian Armed Forces, it requires hard work and planned, systematic study to sail through the stages of recruitment. Shaurya Bharat Defence Exams Learning App is a complete guide for students preparing for defence services examination. Shaurya Bharat app provides a complete framework to students preparing for Army, Air Force, Navy, NDA, CDS, and AFCAT examinations. It provides e-books, video lectures, and highly interactive live classes that help students to study the content very well.
As far as practice is concerned, the app provides practice tests and live exams for students. The app also provides a doubt box where students can raise their doubts. The expert faculty team of Shaurya Bharat answers their doubts within 24 hours.
To know more about Shaurya Bharat app and the courses offered logon to https://shauryabharat.com/
Use the following link to download the Shaurya Bharat app – The best digital platform to prepare for the defence services examination: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shauryabharat
