Half of Army under stress, says military think-tank

[Yasser76]

Half of Army under stress, says military think-tank


Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7

Every year, the Army loses its personnel to suicides, fratricides and untoward incidents. In the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in their stress levels.

Major causes

• Reports blame “prolonged exposure” to counter-terrorist environment as one of the contributory factors for increased stress levels.
• Non-combat related reasons add to the operational stress and have adverse effects on health of soldiers.
• Major causes include inadequacies in the quality of leadership, overburdened commitments, inadequate resources and frequent dislocations.

“At present, more than half of the Army seems to be under severe stress…. this is due to operational and non-operational reasons,” say the findings of the country’s leading think tank, United Services Institution (USI), which is compiling a book from the outcome of a seminar “Prevailing Stress Levels in Indian Army due to Prolonged

Exposure to Counter Insurgency/Counter Terrorism Environment”, which it had organised in October 2020.


Excerpts of the same have been put up on the USI website under ‘strategic perspectives’ for the period October-December 2020. Among the JCOs and jawans, the study identifies reasons, including delay and denial of leave, excessive engagements, domestic problems, humiliation by seniors, lack of dignity, unreasonable restrictions on the use of mobiles, lack of recreational facilities, conflict with seniors as well as subordinates, health problems, inadequacy of train reservation, inefficient administrative support, financial problems, lack of transparency in promotions, delay in crediting of financial claims and poor quality of rations. “There is a need to remove all shortcomings at the earliest.” says the study.

Half of Army under stress, says military think-tank

Half of Army under stress, says military think tank

www.tribuneindia.com

 

[ASKardar]

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7

Every year, the Army loses its personnel to suicides, fratricides and untoward incidents. In the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in their stress levels.

Major causes

• Reports blame “prolonged exposure” to counter-terrorist environment as one of the contributory factors for increased stress levels.
• Non-combat related reasons add to the operational stress and have adverse effects on health of soldiers.
• Major causes include inadequacies in the quality of leadership, overburdened commitments, inadequate resources and frequent dislocations.

“At present, more than half of the Army seems to be under severe stress…. this is due to operational and non-operational reasons,” say the findings of the country’s leading think tank, United Services Institution (USI), which is compiling a book from the outcome of a seminar “Prevailing Stress Levels in Indian Army due to Prolonged

Exposure to Counter Insurgency/Counter Terrorism Environment”, which it had organised in October 2020.

Excerpts of the same have been put up on the USI website under ‘strategic perspectives’ for the period October-December 2020. Among the JCOs and jawans, the study identifies reasons, including delay and denial of leave, excessive engagements, domestic problems, humiliation by seniors, lack of dignity, unreasonable restrictions on the use of mobiles, lack of recreational facilities, conflict with seniors as well as subordinates, health problems, inadequacy of train reservation, inefficient administrative support, financial problems, lack of transparency in promotions, delay in crediting of financial claims and poor quality of rations. “There is a need to remove all shortcomings at the earliest.” says the study.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/half-of-army-under-stress-says-military-think-tank-195425

 

[El Sidd]

why is the other half not stressed that the other half is stressed?

seems fake news

 

[Figaro]

Stress is an understatement ... a more accurate observation is tearing the Indian Army to its absolute limits.

 

[xyxmt]

stress of possibly fighting a war!

 

[shanlung]

stress of possibly fighting a war!

Stress of flying in the war and displayed on Youtube for folks to watch while munching on chips and dips and popcorn and drinking XO or 6 packs or Wulung tea

 

[xyxmt]

Stress of flying in the war and displayed on Youtube for folks to watch while munching on chips and dips and popcorn and drinking XO or 6 packs or Wulung tea

oh you so cruel
hahaha

 

[Zarvan]

Over 50% of Army men are under ‘severe stress’: Study | India News - Times of India (indiatimes.com)

Read here

 

[Iltutmish]

Over 50% of Army men are under ‘severe stress’: Study | India News - Times of India (indiatimes.com)

Read here

When will India find a cure for hereditary PTSD?

 

[masterchief_mirza]

Having to go to sleep every night acutely aware of India's Islamic 1000 year golden age is certainly sufficient to cause such stress for 50% of the whole nation, never mind the military.

 

[FOOLS_NIGHTMARE]

Think tank claims over half of 13L Indian soldiers under severe stress, deletes report later

The study says the Indian Army has been losing more personnel every year due to suicides, fratricides and untoward incidents than in response to enemy or terrorist activities.

More than half of the over 13-lakh strong Indian Army personnel “seems to be under severe stress”, according to a study published by the tri-services think tank United Service Institution of India (USI). There have been over 1,100 cases of suicide among varous ranks since 2010.

The study, done by a serving Colonel and published on the USI website last month was, however, removed Friday.


“Prolonged exposure of Indian Army personnel to CI (counter- insurgency)/CT (counter-terrorism) environment has been one of the contributory factors for increased stress levels,” Colonel A.K. Mor, senior research fellow at the USI during 2019-20, noted in his study.

The Army, the study further noted, lost more personnel every year due to suicides, fratricides and untoward incidents than in response to enemy or terrorist activities.

While sources in the Army have debunked the study due to its small sample size of just 400 personnel, they did admit that stress was an issu



On 14 January last year, the USI had also organised a presentation by Colonel Mor on the topic ‘Occupational Stress in Indian Army Due to Prolonged Exposure to Counter Insurgency/ Counter-terrorism Environment’.

Welcome remarks were made by Maj Gen Rajiv Narayanan, head, Research and Centre for Strategic Studies and Simulation (CS3) at USI, followed by its Chairman, Brig Narender Kumar, SM, VSM (Retd) and distinguished fellow.


“The Director, USI suggested the scholar to focus on a selected sample size and diagnose the role and impact of stress on the unit,” the think tank had noted.


The study, which has now been completed, underlined that there has been a significant increase in stress levels among Indian Army personnel in the last two decades due to operational and non-operational stressors.

‘Stress management measures haven’t achieved results’
Talking about the steps taken by the Army and the defence ministry, the study also noted that various stress management measures implemented in the last 15 years “have not been able to achieve the desired results”.


It said that while operational stressors are well understood and accepted by Army personnel, non-operational stress factors are perceived as avoidable and resented against.


Indian Army officers, it added, experience much higher levels of stress as compared to the junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and other ranks (Ors).

Some of the major organisational causes of stress among Army officers have been identified as inadequacies in the quality of leadership, overburdened commitments, inadequate resources, frequent dislocations, lack of fairness and transparency in postings and promotions, insufficient accommodation and non-grant of leaves.

The main organisational stressors, as perceived by JCOs/ORs, were delay and denial of leaves, excessive engagement, humiliation by seniors, lack of dignity, zero error syndrome, unreasonable restrictions on the use of mobile phones, poor quality of ration and cooked food, besides lack of recreational facilities and conflict with seniors as well as subordinates.

However, the study added, “the overall job satisfaction and pride in uniform still remains high amongst JCOs/ORs. However, at the same time, it seems to be a growing matter of concern amongst officers, requiring urgent interventions from the highest levels of government”.

The study called for an institutionalised approach to stress prevention and management which should be treated “as a leadership role at Unit and Formation level.”

Think tank claims over half of 13L Indian soldiers under severe stress, deletes report later

The study says the Indian Army has been losing more personnel every year due to suicides, fratricides and untoward incidents than in response to enemy or terrorist activities.

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