New Delhi: 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 issue.
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.
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‘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.”
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Useless study and useless article, no fact check, no proper analysis. Half baked analysis is the dangerous things. In 2016, 340,314 (0.020%) people out of population of 1.2 billion at that time committed suicide, Contrast this with Indian military, where only 110 (0.008%) people died per year out of 13 lakh. A non-military Indian is 2.5 ties or 250% ore likely to commit suicide. This data and study proves that some soldiers commit suicide but by joining the military their chances of committing suicide are dramatically reduced.
We have to recognize that have de facto been in a state of war since at least 1989, when the Kashmir insurgency began. And there never really has been a peace in the North East even before that. Operating in these situations, quite apart from the normal rigors of military life – entailing long absences from home, tough work conditions and so on – are bound to take a toll on our soldiers, and incidentally others like policemen as well. More needs to be done to improve welfare, ensure adequate time away with families, change in work culture and internal management styles and so on.
As recently as WWI – if not later – what was knows as “shell shock” and is now recognized as post traumatic stress, was an offense punishable by death in many armies. There is an institutional way of maintaining discipline that has since changed in greatly beneficial ways, but much, much more needs doing. The first and most obvious is to recognize there is a problem – bot suppress such reports – and put in place an approach to reduce stress, detect early signs that a soldier or policeman is struggling with his / her mental well-being, and institute a system of immediately assisting in a humane way. We owe this to our men and women in uniform. And do not forget the families they leave behind when they go off to serve – they, too, pay a big price in many ways.
Leadership has a major role to play as well, by behaving in a way that upholds peace, dignity, respectful behavior, tolerance and so on. An atmosphere of machismo, antagonism and super-man ship does not help anyone.
It’s a shame the report has been suppressed. These things should be aired and corrective measures taken, in the interest of the men and women of the armed forces and their families. Suppression is a sign that there is a problem, and that the leadership lacks the confidence or will to tackle it.
Or simply a sign that it was BS since the suicide rate is 2.5x lower than in the remainder of the population…
These issues are the termites which can eat into even the most sturdy trees. It is not an easy matter to live with uncertainty about one’s likelihood of being alive tomorrow. Most of us wouldn’t survive.
In a non-conscript army the motivation for joining the forces is very different.
The major organizational 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.
These are common in all walks of life and a non-conscript army is much better equipped to deal with it. The stress reasons differ from individual to individual.
To the extent possible this needs to be addressed. The inevitability of stress under the CI (counter- insurgency)/CT (counter-terrorism) environment cannot be wished away.