Indian youth protest against new rules for military jobs

Violent demonstrations highlight job crisis in country with high youth jobless rate

- Debarshi Dasgupta

Angry youth desperate for longterm stable government jobs yesterday continued their violent protests for the third day in several Indian states against a new recruitment policy that has trimmed the service period for fresh recruits in the country's armed forces.

This worrying fallout accentuates the job crisis in India's economy that has failed to provide its youth with adequate employment opportunities.

Demanding a rollback of the scheme announced this week, protesters torched trains and buses, blocked railway tracks and clashed with security forces. At least one person was killed yesterday and more than a dozen injured when police shot live rounds at a crowd that set fire to passenger trains in the state of Telangana.

Under the scheme named Agnipath (Path of Fire), those aged between 17¹/2 and 21 will be recruited as soldiers below officer rank for a four-year contract. They will get a monthly salary of between 30,000 and 40,000 rupees (S$532 and S$710) and will not be entitled to pension or gratuity benefits accorded to ex-soldiers hired earlier on regular recruitment terms.