New Delhi: As many as 1,35,891 posts are lying vacant across the three services of the Indian Armed Forces, the Government informed the Lok Sabha on Friday. The statistics was shared by Minister of State for Defense Ajay Bhatt in a written reply.
The Minister further stated that by far the largest number of vacancies are available in the Army. While the Army has a total vacancy of 1,18,485 as on July 1, 2022, the Indian Navy has 11,587 vacancies as per data on September 30, and the IAF has 5,189 such openings.
A total of 40,000 vacancies have been advertised for JCOs/OR in the Indian Army, 3,000 vacancies have been advertised for Agniveer in 2022 in the Indian Navy, and 3,000 vacancies have been advertised in IAF as Agniveervayu under the Agnipath Scheme in 2022, the minister noted. As for the number of youths recruited so far, the MoS Defence noted that “All the recruitments at the level of jawans under the Agnipath Scheme presently under progress".
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Bhatt in a separate reply stated that around 3.69 per cent of the workforce in Indian Air Force (IAF) excluding its medical branch are women, the highest among the three armed forces.
Responding to a question on the representation of women in the Armed forces, the MoS further stated that "officers recruitment in the IAF is gender neutral." “Women officers are inducted in all the branches and streams of IAF. Opportunities for a career in IAF service are widely publicized through print/ electronic media and special publicity drives,” Bhatt said.
Presenting a data on the ‘participation of women in defence sector’ Bhatt said that "Government has taken number of steps to increase women participation in the Defence sector. Combat employment philosophy of women in the Armed Forces is a continuously evolving process and regularly reviewed by the Indian Army."
"At present, the women are being commissioned in Indian Army in ten Streams viz. Corps of Engineers, Corps of Signals, Army Air Defence, Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, Corp of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, Army Aviation Corps, Intelligence Corps, Judge Advocate General Branch and Army Education Corps in addition to the Armed Forces Medical Services as Doctors and Military Nurses which is a women only entry. New Avenues such as grant of permanent commission to SSC women officers, induction of women cadets in NDA, recruitment of Women as Provost JCOs/OR,” the minister added.
