No, what is being asked of the IA is to trim redundant SUPPORT staff ie orderlies, cooks, porters etc.
If i were to count the number of helpers/batmen bhaiya in every unit then there are hardly 9-10 of them in each unit. Cooks: 2-3 soldiers in the jawan's mess and the same number in officer's mess.
The Indian Army currently has about 30000 soldiers serving as batmen. I am in favour of abolishing this sytem but against reducing the number of soldiers.
I am quoting Gen GD.Bakshi...
A) Technology as a Substitute for Manpower:
This was first articulated in the pre-Kargil context, when defence was facing a serious resource crunch.
The need was for the armed forces to seek a rise in the defence budget from a mere 1.2 percent of GDP to at least 2.5 to 3 per cent. Instead the top brass of that era came up with fanciful theories of downsizing the army (to please their political masters); and to generate more funds for modernisation. The downsizing mantra was borrowed from the Americans, who themselves came to grief in Iraq and Afghanistan for lack of adequate boots on ground (they have since increased the size of the US army and marine corps). The downsizing led to near disaster in the Kargil War when orders to disband the Mule and Pioneer companies had to be hastily rescinded.14 These were urgently needed resources and the move to demobilise them proved to be very unrealistic and unsound.
Despite this glaring shock, intellectual dishonesty led some sections of the brass to persist stubbornly with their pet hobbyhorse of downsizing. The brutal fact was that India’s threats came from LICs in mountains and jungles. These are heavily manpower intensive requirements. After the Kargil war, some
30 additional battalions of the RR had to be raised post haste (so much for downsizing). The internal security (IS) threat envelope has only been pushed exponentially since then. To the proxy war in J&K and the insurgencies in the Northeast, has been added the threat of jihadi terror in the whole of India and now the very serious threat of LWE (Left Wing Extremism) in the tribal areas of central and peninsular India.
At the time of Operation Blue Star, and later, the diversion of our strategic reserves to Sri Lanka; the need had been felt for a six division sized force for internal security tasks. Thanks to the proxy war in J&K, we were forced to raise a final total of some six divisions worth of the Rashtriya Rifles.
B) Technology as Add-on to Manpower: (something that I favour
)The second school of thought stems from the realisation that India today is in the midst of a major demographic youth bulge. By 2026, our population will overtake that of China and 68 per cent of this will be in the working age group. India will have the youngest population in the world and the average age of an Indian will be just 29. India will have the highest RMP (Recruitable Male Population) in the world. India, in fact, will be hard pressed to generate some 800 million jobs for our youth.14 Downsizing in such a context can be an unmitigated recipe for disaster. We will add to the ranks of the unemployed and provoke serious internal conflicts. Any force restructuring strategies therefore must exploit our key strength which is youthful manpower and a massive work force. By just increasing our share of GDP for defence from 2.5 to 3 per cent (which is the global norm for major powers), we could exploit our manpower assets and make them so much more lethal with technology as an add-on. There is no scope for an either-or equation. We simply need both manpower (which is our key resource) and technology. To get motivated manpower, we need to popularise the military ethic in this country. China’s regular armed forces number 1.4 million, compared to our 1.2 million. The Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP) tasked for IS tasks also number 1.4 million. These are not police forces but demobilized PLA units.
India has some 60 battalions of RR and some 45 battalions of the Assam Rifles as the only genuine paramilitary forces for IS tasks. Keeping in view the exponentially rising threat of LWE (which clearly is beyond the operational capability of CRPF and even the BSF), realistically, India must raise six more infantry divisions for this task. These could be blooded in CI operations against the Naxals, and later provide the manpower for two additional strike corps for the Himalayan theatre. Such a force accretion alone can give us a decisive advantage over Pakistan (and a deterrence capability against China). If Pakistan tries to keep pace, it could torpedo its economy. It would also help us to transit from dissuasion to a robust deterrence on the Chinese front.
source
@Abingdonboy
Just realised that we both are always on the opposite side of a debate.
