Sudam Sarode is a retired jawan who took active part in the Indo-Pak war in the 1960s. Today, he lives in Khubgaon village in Wardha, Maharashtra. He is a ‘kisan’ who tills his fields and doubles up as an activist of the Shetkari Sanghatana of Vidarbha. Others who retired more recently in the village are either doing cultivation like him or joining private sector firms as peons, drivers or security guards. The only support from the Army comes in the form of a pension of Rs 8,000 every month, says Sarode.
However, things may be different for jawans retiring a few years from now.
The Army is turning a new leaf on the post-retirement life of its jawans. Since 2009, it has begun enrolling all its jawans in graduation courses through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). This will ensure that when soldiers retire at the age of 35, they are equipped with a degree. About 420,000 jawans have enrolled for a degree under this project called Gyandeep.
The Army has also signed an MoU with Microsoft to equip the jawans with information technology (IT) and English-speaking skills.
Last week at the Army cantonment in Delhi, 22 jawans from across the country received certificates after completion of their month-long course in computers. An excited jawan said he could now talk to his children about emails and internet. Another wanted a computer for practice.
The Army intends to deploy these trained jawans in jobs that require IT skills, said an official.
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Microsoft began by training 2,000 master trainers. These in turn run courses round the year at 48 centres of the Army. Microsoft also has its tutors running more advanced courses at ten of these centres, renamed as IT Akademies. And, in the last two years, 17,000 jawans have been certified by Microsoft.
Says a senior official of Microsoft, “IT skills are not merely for post-retirement jobs. IT skills are part of the armoury of the modern soldier.”
This is not the only partnership the Army has forged with the private sector for imparting skills to jawans to prepare them for retirement.
The Army is currently talking to the National Skill Development Corporation as well as industry bodies, Confederation of Indian Industries and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, for similar MoUs with various skilling partners from the industry to provide multiple skills and options to jawans. Vocational training centres are on the anvil for jawans to prepare them for post-retirement jobs.
Not all jawans who got certificates last week were on the verge of retirement. Some had just joined, while others were a few years into their service.
For Microsoft, the project called Kshamata (meaning ability) is only a Corporate Social Responsibility and not a parallel business move, its officials say.
While 50,000 jawans retire each year, Kshamata would take a two or three years at the present rate to train that many soldiers with IT skills.
Says a senior Army official, “Our jawans learn various skills while in service, but these are not converted to civil degrees and, hence, of no use once they retire. So, our package with IGNOU and future agreements are intended to do precisely this — to convert their skills and give additional skills with a view to future relevance, as well.
The Army is also looking for “assured absorption” of the skilled personnel once they retire, and this element is being worked into the MoUs that are being considered with the industry, officials say.
The move would help not just the jawans but the industry too, which is currently facing a crisis of skilled labour. While about three million people are skilled annually, the requirement is estimated to be around 30 million a year, and 300 million in ten years. This also forms the basis for the national skill development policy.