• Enrolment under India’s new armed forces recruitment strategy will begin this month.
• Agnipath is a system that will substantially reduce tenure and award fewer military perks.
• 46,000 cadets will be recruited this year, with barely 25% remaining at the end of their four-year service.

DELHI, NEW DELHI: Despite objections against a system that will substantially reduce tenure and award fewer military perks at the end of the contract, top defence officials announced on Sunday that enrolment under India’s new armed forces recruitment strategy will begin this month.

On June 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unveiled Agnipath, or “path of fire,” a strategy aimed at bringing more people into India’s 1.38 million-strong armed forces on four-year contracts in order to reduce the average age of the country’s armed forces.

Thousands of young men attacked train coaches, burned tyres, and clashed with officials as a result of the scheme, which provoked violent protests in the country’s northern and eastern regions. The government later adjusted some of the restrictions.

Some defence experts have criticised the concept, claiming that it might damage the military’s organisation and have major implications for national security.

Top defence officials, on the other hand, claim Agnipath is a transformative change aimed at modernising security infrastructure.

“Why should it be rolled back?” says the narrator. “This was a long-overdue change,” Lieutenant General Anil Puri, the defence ministry’s additional secretary, told reporters in New Delhi.

This year, 46,000 cadets will be recruited under Agnipath, with barely 25% remaining at the end of their four-year service. The cadets will undergo six months of training before being deployed for three and a half years.

One of the most pressing concerns is what would happen to the troops after their terms are over, but Puri assured that those participating in the scheme will be placed in suitable jobs when they are freed.

Anyone involved in violent protests, he warned, would not be eligible for the defence services under the system.

On Sunday, the federal home ministry said it would set aside 10% of openings in paramilitary forces and the Assam Rifles, an Indian army unit, for individuals who had completed the plan, while the defence ministry said it would set aside 10% of its vacancies for those who had completed the scheme.