r2i forum

jay62728;73744Should India introduce conscription to army to fulfill the shortage of armed force personnel and mainly to build character and discipline for young citizens of the country?

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No.

Being in the army does not necessarily build character.

ihdnanna;73752No.

Being in the army does not necessarily build character.[/quote]
Yes, I agree with you partly. It surely cannot guarantee but it does increase the chance to have a better sense of discipline and some degree of honesty (at least in junior level).

ihdnanna;73791The biggest challenge would be attracting young men and women to join the Army Engineer Corps - the technical branch. [/quote]

Yes, that is a bigger challenge than the shortage of non-techie officers.
Techies in the army are in Sappers (Corps of Enginners) and Signals - supporting arms - and in EME. The solution, in my view, is to increase reliance on recruiting science graduates and then the army training them to be engineers in the above.

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Regarding General Kapoor's statement in the link in OP, I see it as highlighting a problem (which is legitimate) and also designed to influence (this is legitimate too, a captain is batting for his team) the sixth pay commission (which is yet to submit report) to give a better deal to armed forces personnel.

Bobus;73773From India Army Perspective

(a) No shortage of people (of quality that army is fine with) seeking entry as jawans/sepoys.
(b) There is a shortage of commissioned officers upto rank of Captain/Major.

The shortage in (b) aint new. Army has been managing with JCOs (Subedars who are promotees from among Jawans) for a long time who do quite fine in platoon command and certain administrative tasks at Company and Battalion level, though for certain tasks a more educated person (commissioned officer at say Captain rank) is better suited.

So there is a problem in (b) though not as big/severe as press reports may suggest. The solution, in my view, is making short service commission (via OTS Chennai) more attractive - and there are several ways to do so.

From Civilian Nation Perspective

Even fasting for 20 days and Himalayan treks have benefits. So make them compulsory? What next? Everyone shd do SuryaNamaskar and learn trignometry?

The costs, in my view, exceed the touted benefits, though with many people the idea has appeal. I will expand on the costs if needed.[/quote]

I got your point and agree with many of those. Yet I feel that it'll be better for the nation if our youngsters undergo a few months camp under army/NCC on a compulsory basis. I am suggesting that not to solve Army's problem for skilled officers (as highlighted by many people in army and civil admin before). I am in favor of that to train future citizens to become aware of their duties and enable them (at least to some extent) to carry out their duties in a better way. I know that it will not solve the problem of our country in totality. Then again, no process can guarantee that in any system or any country. It?s very pathetic that majority of Indians, particularly young generation do not even know our full national anthem, hardly can think beyond money, hardly have any culture of physical activity/exercise etc. It?s a endemic problem now.
I have seen Switzerland how it uses that rule. And it?s one of the main reasons why general Swiss have a very high sense of passiveness about their country. An old man there generally does not hesitate to scold a teenager if that chap doing something wrong in public place or defacing public property (though almost all Swiss have guns). People who cannot or do not like to serve army conscription, have the option to opt for forest service or social service.