Lateral Recruitment of Exservicemen retiring from Indian Army Navy and Air Force at very young age is an initiative of Govt of India. After rendering 15-30 years of service in Indian Armed Forces, those Exservicemen after releasing from the defence forces, need to search a new career in this competitive market. It has been experienced that appearing competitive exam at the middle age is quite difficult and may not necessary to assess one’s capability.
Service experience at a highly perfection world named Indian Armed Force should be treated as sufficient for this purpose. Considering this point, an initiative has been taken to directly appoint the Eservicemen on the basis of their experience and rank structure in the equivalent civil jobs. In recent days DRDO has created scope to absorb the retiring defence personnel in their prestigious organisation and hundreds of such JCos/OR benlongs to technical and non technical trades got opportunity to get reemployed.
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Ministry of defence has pulished a report of the Expert committee on this issue which was held in July 2022.
Report Published by DEPARTMENT OF EX-SERVICEMEN WELFARE (DESW) on IMPLEMENTATION STATUS ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE OF RAKSA MANTRI’s COMMITTEE OF EXPERTS CONCERNING DESW
Para 7.1 : Lateral induction and re-employment (a) The desirability of protection of the status (not just pay) as per military rank or length of military service of ex-servicemen who are reemployed on the civil side or offering them lateral appointments consistent with their status and experience. (b) The desirability of inception of a proper coordination cell on ex-servicemen employment issues in the DoPT or the DESW since policies related to the same are under the purview of DoPT and there is lack of coordination between the DoPT and the MoD/DESW/Services HQ leading to undue delays on decisions on any issues cropping up based on such policies.
(c) Improvement of educational qualifications and skill development should be an ongoing process while in service and should be adequately stressed upon. Methods be explored for a higher configuration with organizations such as FICCI on mutually acceptable terms.
(d) The vacancies reserved for Group D should be amalgamated into Group C on the abolition of the former. Also, it should be ensured that JCOs are not offered and are discouraged from taking appointments lower than their erstwhile military status and are offered appointments commensurate to their status and service.
(e) Examine the desirability of gainfully employing veterans by way of formulation of a veterans’ body for involving them in constructive activities and nation building.
Decision taken by Raksha mantri Expert Committee
Partially Accepted : Point 7.1 (a) (i) With regard to the lateral induction of the Armed Forces Personnel in the Central Para Military Forces (CPMF), it is submitted that the lateral induction is required to be done of the inservice Armed Forces personnel. This matter was taken up with MHA who have informed that a Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of DG CRPF with all other DGs of the Forces as members to examine the matter. The Committee did not find the proposal of induction of Servicemen/Ex-Servicemen in to CAPFs, RAF and Cobra Battalions good for operational performance of CAPF. (Not accepted)
(ii) A proposal to provide reservation of 10% in Group ‘B’ (Nongazetted) for direct recruitment posts and to provide reservation of 20% in Group ‘C’ Direct recruitment posts in Central Government jobs has been taken up with DOP&T. However, after careful consideration of the proposal in consultation with other Ministries/Departments, DOP&T stated that the proposal regarding providing 10% reservation in Group ‘B’ posts and 20% reservation in Group ‘C’ posts to ExServicemen for vacancies in the posts to be filled by direct recruitment, if agreed to, will not serve the desired purpose. However, every effort is made to provide jobs to ESM commensurate with their status and experience. (Not accepted)
(iii) From the half yearly reports on monitoring of reservation prepared by DGR it is observed that even the existing reservation available in Group C and D posts is not completely achieved by Central Government Ministries/Departments, Banks/Financial Institutions and Public Sector Enterprises. This Department has requested DOP&T, DPE and Department of Financial Services to issue necessary instructions to Departments/Organizations/Offices under their control to comply with the reservation policy for Ex-servicemen. Further, matter regarding enforcement of the instructions was discussed with DOP&T who informed that for SC/ST/OBC, DOP&T have a system of appointing Liaison Officers in Ministries/Departments who are responsible for implementation of the Roster System. It was proposed by DOP&T that a similar system for reservation for ESM can be adopted for which DOP&T can issue a separate OM. DOP&T have prepared draft instructions and sought the comments of stakeholders before finalizing. O.M. by DOP&T regarding appointment of L.O. is expected shortly. (Accepted)
Point 7.1(b) – The mandate of Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare itself is to look after the issues relating to Welfare of Ex-Servicemen. A cell exists in DESW to coordinate with other Departments to ensure timely execution and implementation of welfare activities of ESM. The cell is manned by a Director, Under Secretary, Section Officer and other support staff. The different divisions set up in DESW are looking after different aspects of welfare of ESM such as Pension Policy matters, resettlement matters, ESM health related issues, various grants to ESM and their family members, public grievances of ESM on different matters. Divisions of Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare themselves take up the matter with concerned Ministry/Department for resolution of the problems faced by ESM.
The matter regarding amendment of Policy or formulation of new policy regarding reservation in jobs/providing relaxed standard in selection/enhancing the age etc. relating to ESM/dependents of ESM killed in action is taken by the MoD, D/o ESW with DOP&T/ D/o Financial Services/ D/o Public Enterprises and even with the State Governments very promptly. However, recommendations of the Committee for setting up a separate cell are accepted subject to availability of additional staff for this purpose.
Point 7.1(c) – An MoU has been signed between Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship on 13th July, 2015 related to skill development for provisioning of better certification to the retiring soldiers under National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) charter. Under this scheme, various Sector Skill Councils affiliated/ accredited by NSDC or its partners have been identified for National Occupational Standards (NOS) alignment of training and skill development. Various workshops have also been conducted by DGR to achieve this aim and implement the same as per the timelines given on each agenda, i.e. applicability of Common Norms as per Govt. of India Gazette Notification dated 8th August 2016 on skill development by Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.
The aim of implementation of this Mission is to ensure NOS alignment of DGR Training contents and providing them National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) desired standards, assessment and certification. DGR courses are now aligned to various NSQF levels as per the National Occupational Standards under Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, overall aim being towards job creation and getting suitable employment for retiring/retired soldiers. Since August 2016, ESM undergo Skill Resettlement Training Courses at Central/State Government Institutes /institutes run by regulatory bodies/institutes certified by NSDC with minimum NSQF level 4. Besides that other Resettlement Training Courses i.e. Certificate/diploma courses are also imparted to the ESMs/widow/their dependents by the Govt. institutes or institutes controlled by govt body.
A case has been taken up by this Ministry vide O.M. dated 4.12.2017 with Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship to take up the matter with DOP&T, Department of Public Enterprises and Department of Financial Services for amendment in the Recruitment Rules of different offices under Central/State Govt., PSUs, Banks and Financial institutions to ensure that Certificate awarded for resettlement courses (below six months) aligned to NSDC are recognized and given due weightage in recruitment of ESM in Central/State Govt./PSU/Bank jobs. With this recognition the number of ESM getting job will substantially increase. This will also facilitate them to avail the complete percentage of ESM reservation quota allotted by the Central Govt. The proper equation of a servicemen trade proficiency and due recognition thereof by all the Government agencies would go a long way in enabling to fill the unclaimed reserved vacancies for ESMs in the Central Government Jobs.
Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship have constituted a sub-committee under the Chairmanship of AS & DG, NSDA to examine the matter and submit report. Based on the advice of MSDE, a case has been taken up by this Department with DOP&T, DPE, DFS & Railway Board, requesting them to issue necessary instructions to all offices under their administrative control to amend their Recruitment Rules to include NSQF compliant skill levels held by ex-servicemen at par with civil qualifications for employment in ex-servicemen reserved job vacancies. DGR has an MoU with CII since 2014 to facilitate better placement of ESM in corporate jobs. To strengthen the initiative preliminary discussions have also been held with FICCI to have a similar arrangement in place at the earliest.
DGR has also requested CII and FICCI to provide an opportunity to DGR to address their associated Corporate Houses with an aim to apprise about the capabilities and employability of ESM. These talks have been delivered at few events already and the process will be continued. Further, a joint workshop between FICCI & DGR was conducted at Manekshaw Auditorium on 22.06.2018. The theme of the workshop was based on “projecting the skills and competencies of ESM to corporate sector”. Important issues that concern the ESM who are looking for job opportunities in corporate sector were discussed in detail during an interactive panel discussion and various areas were identified which needs to be further worked upon so as to develop the right interface between ESM and the corporate sector. A draft MoU between DGR & FICCI has been signed on 27.01.2020. (Accepted)
Point 7.1(d) – The position has already been explained in Para (ii) of recommendation (a) above. (Not accepted) Point 7.1(e) No inputs were provided by Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. However, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has informed that Sanitation being a State subject, Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) is being implemented by the State Govts. GOI only provides technical and financial support to the States for implementation of the programme.
Thus, State Govt. are actually engaging the resource persons for successful implementation of the Mission at ground level. Thus, on getting the list of such organizations of veterans, this Ministry will circulate the same list to the States for engaging such veterans as resource persons under Swachh Bharat Mission. In this regard, the recommendations of the Committee and the response of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation have been forwarded to DGR, DIAV, DAV and DESA so that they can share the list of veterans volunteering for such services with Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. (Accepted)
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