It is amazing how much an overheard conversation from a public transport medium can enlighten your thought process. Well the incident unfolds like this, while traveling through the local trains of Mumbai, I found myself in company of this group of youngsters just out of school and were out (for what I suppose) to fill forms of various colleges they wished to be a part off. So, these boys are chatting and conveying their future plans to each other in a very ambitious and a bit loud inviting my attention to them. They had pretty much had the usually popular, very commercially viable plans like being a engineer or a doctor basically professions which are looked as 'IDEAL' unlike one boy who said he wanted to be a part of the Indian army and the reaction of his friends upon this was what astonished me. They burst into laughter and said," why do you want to waste your life yaar.... tuh hrithik nahi hai, army is tough man." away from your family and it's not even worth it."
These are the young urban minds of India and their conception of the most powerful, dedicated, disciplined and a rich history holding 'INDIAN ARMY’. Now it is not because of this bunch of ignorant boys that I jump to this conclusion. Being from a military school, I saw this trend of young students joining the 'MERCHANT NAVY' after completion of their years at school. Trained and well versed with values required for an aspiring officer in the army these students are molded so that they can go join the National defense academy and become officers of Indian army. Does it happen?! NO! ... These students switch professions to join something more commercial and well 'paying' which is the 'MERCHANT NAVY'.
Why is it that the most noblest and loyal sons of mother India are not the professionals that the young India aspires to be? Consider this ... think of the most sought after, quality education imparting, prestigious, competitive, famous institute of education in India which churns out most professionals of top quality year after year ....
The answer to this is probably the IITs or the IIMs.
Ever heard of NDA.. The NATIONAL DEFENCE ACADEMY which single handedly is responsible for providing the best quality officers for various wings of defense namely the army, navy and the air force ... consider this example, Thousands of brilliant and almost genius young minds prepare for years at end rigorously, attending intense studying programs and over-stressing their young minds to make it into the IITs ... 4 years they are slogged and trained and made 'market ready' and then thrown into the industry with the 'IIT' tag which makes sure they are absorbed by the big guns. I am not questioning the credibility of IITs here but would like the reader to see the high amount of popularity that is institute has managed to make for it. Whereas NDA, with all its glorious history and list of alumni that are some of the most influential individuals of India is still what the term 'unsung hero' best describes. So why is it that the urban crowd avoids career of an army officer which is prestigious than most of the contemporary options that he has. Numero uno in this list of reasons would be the ‘money’;' low salary' or what is now referred very famously as 'PACKAGE'.
A very important and main culprit for me. This obviously is a very vital aspect. For this I would like you to look at these statistics...
The Indian budgeted defense expenditure (DE) for the current year (2007-08) is Rs. 96,000 crore (a big amount u say....) and the Indian Army’s share of this pie is approximately 47%. The DE is 2.07% of the GDP.
If we are to look at the DE for some other countries ...
Pakistan --> 3.4 %
USA --> 4 %
Singapore --> 6%
Also what is alarming to see is the fact that the already dismal DE of INDIA has fallen from 2.50% in the year 1991-92 to the current 2.07% in the year 2007-08 and there seems no end to this trend.
Why is there a drop in the revenue for the Indian Army? (which by the way is not a member of any military alliance or strategic grouping). Why this low priority for the defense sector? Who is to answer ... the GOVERNMENT.. which by the way already have a lot of answering to do ...
A soldier who is skilled at using equipments worth lakhs of rupees earns a modest amount of salary, to compare a BPO employee who on an average gets salary of 12 grand which incidentally almost equal to salary of a army officer. The amount of money earned by sitting in a air conditioned posh urban office with a headset on your head and a fake accent on your tongue is same as the hardworking, loyal and sacrificing solider on the border of country. Don’t we owe it to these 'heroes'...
The death of a soldier brings tears in the eyes of the masses and sets the adrenaline pumping all across. But isn't that the only time when we acknowledge our land borne soldiers. These heroes who safeguard our motherland irrespective of the complex interplay of geographical attributes, historical legacy, and socio-economic circumstances as well as regional and global developments until their last breath are suddenly forgetting completely by people if not for a war or a controversy. Maybe it is the media who is to blame or the ignorant 'US' but there is a genuine problem. The men in uniform are not seen as a 'cool thing' by the contemporary urban youth unlike in other countries like US. Maybe it is lack of a well-advertised army and it is policies, or a very high level of physical endurance or the low income incurred.
Whatever the reason might be it’s effecting our army in a negative manner and making our motherland lack in defense and more prone to the attacks with lack of sons who would want to protect her and take proud in it!
THE END!
