Tour of Duty Scheme: Armed forces to see changes in recruitment

The three military services, namely the army, air force, and navy, are about to see some revolutionary changes in the recruitment system. According to the newly proposed changes, all the recruited soldiers shall be released from service after 4 years. That’s not all; the changes also make it mandatory to re-enlist 25% of soldiers for full service after a month. These progressive changes are part of the Tour of Duty/Agneepath scheme.

If sources are to be believed, many high-level discussions have been taking place among the authoritative bodies regarding this radical move. Soldiers can expect the implementation of these reforms any day now. Once implemented, these reforms will hopefully increase the quality of life of these soldiers.

The initial proposal had stipulated the release of a particular percentage of recruits following 3 years of active service. More soldiers, according to the initial proposal, were to be released after 5 years of military service, with 25% to be retained. However, now the new proposal is likely to supersede it. Besides being beneficial to the soldiers, the new changes can also save a substantial amount of money.


According to sources, some soldiers shall enjoy an exception in this regard due to their trades. As such, they may be retained even beyond the proposed 4 years of service owing to their duty’s technical nature.

The recruitment process had been relatively quiet for almost 2 years now. Naturally, there had been significant anxiety among the soldiers over the looming uncertainty. In fact, the states of Punjab and Haryana even witnessed some protests over the delay in the recruitment process. The lingering fear among the soldiers was regarding the fact that they may not get the service opportunity in the future due to over age. The situation had gotten so worse in Haryana that some soldiers even committed suicide due to massive frustration.