If the number of aspirants for a career in the defence services is falling, who is to be blamed for this? Is not such a career appealing? What can be the remedy for this? These are some of the questions grinding in the minds of the policy-makers and the powers-that-be.
While the youth is generally blamed for not ‘being patriotic’ by ignoring an army job, former Chief of Army Staff General Ved Prakash Malik (retd) has a different answer. Looking at the issue in a fresh perspective, he feels that a career in armed forces is not ‘tempting enough’ for the youth. “As a career option, the armed forces have to offer a lot more than what it currently offers. It has to be interestingly designed, packaged with incentives and be offered as an attractive package”, he says with a grin.
In an informal chat with The Hindu , General Malik explained that as a career, defence services would have to compete with other professions like engineering, medicine, information technology etc. As the present day youth have a wide range of options to choose from, the government should think of making a career in the army as attractive as possible, instead of merely dubbing it an option to prove one’s patriotism.
