However, before suggesting steps to increase officer enrollment, the military has to begin by admitting the failure of ‘feeder institutions’ that were created to increase officer intake in the armed forces. There are 22 Sainik schools, one in most of the major states, five military schools and the venerable Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) that were established mainly to groom future generations of military officers. These residential schools admit students in class VI and, at least on paper, provide them with an education that supposedly imbibes the Orwellian ‘Officer Like Qualities’ making them, ideally, fit to join the National Defence Academy. While exact figures are hard to come by, cursory examinations of websites of the Sainik schools show that barely 1-2 per cent of students make the cut. Why have these schools failed to deliver? As the first Sainik school alumni to be appointed as army chief, General Deepak Kapoor would know more about this than anyone else.

Two other issues have exacerbated the problem. First, the quality of life offered to military personnel and their families. While the soldier expects hardships in operational areas, in peace stations he rarely lives the life advertised in slick media campaigns. The quality and availability of accommodation for both officers and men in cantonment towns are abysmal, with sub-standard construction, poor furniture and other faults. Similarly, the quality of rations, electricity and water supply and elements of ‘modernity’, like Internet accessibility, are either sub-par or non-existent. Senior officers, with a few exceptions, are rarely affected, or bothered, as they live walled-off in their palatial bungalows with their numerous sahayaks. Compounding the problem is the near monopoly that the Military Engineering Services has on this sector, which, as economists will point out, usually leads to inefficiency and a lack of responsiveness to the customer. One solution, then, suggests exploring public-private partnerships to deliver the ‘goods’ to military personnel.

... contd.