While the video of 19-year-old Pradeep Mehra doing a midnight run from work to home and aspiring to join the Army has gone viral on social media, Army recruitment rallies across the country continue to remain suspended due to COVID-19 restrictions. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday that the recruitment process in the Army has been suspended for the past two years due to the pandemic.
In addition, while 100 women have been recruited in the Corps of Military Police (CMP) in 2019-20, further recruitment of 199 women candidates planned during 2020-21 and 2021-22 has been withheld, the Government informed Parliament.
Defence officials said this will have a serious impact on the Army in few years as the recruitment cycle of soldiers, from selection to training, takes around two years and deficiencies will be felt few years down the line.
