While you continue to crib about the daily traffic and the ‘work load’ in your office, a jawan belonging to the Indian Army is away from his home for months guarding the border in life threatening situations. Amid the daily chaos, we tend to disregard the sacrifices and stress the Indian armed forces which is believed to one of the largest standing armies goes through while dealing with a few difficult neighbours.
Defence Ministry recently made some shocking revelations in the Parliament stating that Indian army loses over a 100 army jawans every year because of stress related suicided and fragging (deliberate killing or attempted killing by a soldier of a fellow soldier).
44 cases of suicide and fratricide cases have been recorded alone this year, Defence Ministry claimed adding that 310 soldiers including 9 officers, 19 junior commissioned officers allegedly committed suicide since 2014. 11 cases of fratricide have also been reported during this period of time. Last month, Major Shikar Thapa was shot dead by an army jawan along the LoC of Uri district of Jammu and Kashmir. Naik Kathi had reportedly opened fire with his AK-47 rifle at the officer after being scolded for using a phone while on duty.
Not being able to help family back home, marital issues, poor financial conditions, deployment in counter-insurgency operations in J&K and North-East, poor pay, denial of leaves are believed to be just some of the reasons why some of the Indian army jawans could be under massive stress. The Ministry has asserted that they have been taking measures to tackle the issue and are training some officers as counsellors apart from hiring professional counsellors. They are also aiming to improve the living conditions and are working on their leave policy that would be convenient to all.
Source: Times of India
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