The batch of Agniveers started their training in Hyderabad, six months after the government announced its scheme.
The first batch of 19,000 recruits in the 17.5-23 year age group joined training on January 3 across multiple locations of the country.
It’s a 31-week training.
Once the scheme was announced in June 2022, there were multiple events of violence across cities in India, concerning modalities of the scheme.
However, it now appears a thing of the past.
Senior Defence personnel informing on the training methodology said, “The training now is more focussed, based on automation, based on simulators. We are making use of various equipment, and automated procedures and giving a very focused training to the Agniveers in the 2-part, 31-week training.”
The Agniveers will undergo physical and other kinds of training for 31 weeks. In the initial 10 weeks, they will be identified for their strength areas, post that there will be a focussed 10-week training for them.
Another 21,000 Agniveers, including women, will join the training in March. In total, 40,000 Agniveers will be recruited in 2023, for the three wings of the armed forces.
After completing the six-month training, the Agniveers will serve for the next 3.5 years. Post the completion of the four-year period, one-fourth or 25 per cent of the Agniveers will be re-employed for 15 more years on the basis of their merit, intent and the requirements of the organization.
The rest of the recruited Agniveers or 75 per cent would be compensated with a retirement package called ‘Seva Nidhi’.
The Agnipath recruitment scheme basically tries to combine the key elements of experience and youth to recruit personnel below officer rank (PBOR).
