Giving ground to Territorial Army

As far as manpower is concerned, the concept of the Territorial Army (TA) needs to be revitalised. The TA, also known as the “Citizens’ Army”, comprises gainfully employed individuals who receive military training for a specified period each year and are called out for active service during an emergency.

Since it comprises people who already have a career in the civilian stream, it addresses the concern of having militarily trained persons going astray.

Having people from all walks of life, TA can also bring in added technical expertise to the forces or set up task forces for a limited or specific purpose. A larger TA, as has been argued in the past, can result in cutting the regular force levels, leading to freeing financial resources for capital acquisitions and other modernisation projects.

At present, over 60 per cent of the defence budget goes towards meeting manpower-related costs.

What is required beyond military training is having a security conscious society that is able to visualise and play an important part in combating sub-conventional threats like cyber attacks, communal disharmony and hate campaigns, terrorism, narco-smuggling and money laundering, which have become the order of the day and a drain on the national exchequer and a menace to society.

Good security lies more in the mind than in weapons and towards this end, there is a dire need to educate the people, specially the upcoming generation, on issues of national security.

What needs to be done more than imparting military training, experts say, is to conduct regular capsules or classes at all levels in educational institutes on security-related topics. An alert, aware and motivated citizen using technical skills or expertise to counter underlying currents of internal unrest, or threats from the cyber world, makes for an enormous asset.

Education on security matters coupled with increasing the strength of part-time military volunteers, they feel, can effectively meet the twin challenges of manpower and countering varied threats.

Shortfall in armed forces

• Compulsory military training is expected to be Army-centric. The Army has a strength of about 12 lakh personnel, the Air Force 1.2 lakh and the Navy of about 52,000. Figures laid in Parliament this month reveal that the Army is deficient of 7,989 officers and 26,928 personnel, the Navy of 1,499 officers and 11,631 sailors and the Air Force of 357 officers and 2,951 airmen.
• Given the size of the Navy and its technology intensive nature, its ratio of shortage is the highest and most serious among the three services. 
• Shortage of Army officers is not a new phenomenon and has existed since Independence. The manpower is periodically analysed and factored in the 15 Year Long Terms Perspective Plan and Five Year Plans of Army. In addition, manpower review, if imperative, is done during the mid-plan period. The cadre structure of officers in Army: