COMPULSORY NATIONAL SERVICE – A NECESSITY IN INDIAN CONTEXT

I have heard that in USA every citizen has to put in compulsory military service for a specified period. I do not have any idea what other stipulations are attached with it, but I am sure this exercise of serving in the military would go a long way in shaping the life of the youth and inculcating a sense of discipline in life.

I sincerely feel that in Indian context too, we should have a similar stipulation and it should be more appropriately termed as “ Compulsory National Service” rather than limiting it to military service. Though the entry point should be the armed forces where you receive training for not only physical development but also inculcate a sense of discipline and integrity in life and a sense of patriotism towards our nation. This initial training would go a long way in creating a nation whose citizens have a healthy body, healthy mind and more importantly healthy thoughts.

Ideally this “Compulsory National Service” should be taken up immediately after finishing the graduation but should in any case be completed before the age of 30. After the initial training, the personnel depending on their education qualification and aptitude should put in various of areas of Social and developmental service, more in the rural areas of the country.

The benefits of this “Compulsory National Service” is truly multifold in the Indian context some of which I am explaining below:

• We have long been complaining of brain drain in our country with the best brains going abroad for better working conditions as well as emoluments. One cannot stop that but definitely we can utilise their service for a specified period within our country. • I read an article in “The Hindu” about Doctors in rural India who were performing as much as 12 tubectomy surgery in an hour as against the permitted 20 surgeries per day. Incidentally in one such case the Doctor ended up pulling off the small intestine of the patient. We have a huge population of doctors serving in urban areas of our country as well as abroad and I am sure a sizable number of medical graduates pass out every year from premium institutions in our country, which incidentally enjoys a lot of Government subsidies in terms of fees. So if these graduates are straight away picked up from medical colleges and put into rural areas as part of National Service, I am sure the quality of rural medical infrastructure would vastly improve.

• Another important area for National Service is in various Research & Expert Committees that the Government forms before taking up any development activities or giving clearance to projects. It has been seen that though the committees get constituted adequately with experts and intellects, there is a vacuum of personnel to do the actual work at Grass root level and give information to the committees. Most of the committees are either not able to take a decision / take long time to clear projects / take wrong decisions contradictory to the practical reality due to this problem. Our young professionals can greatly help by filling up this vacuum as part of their national service and get the nation into fast track of development.

• Lastly our illiterate or less literate population can be used in military service for various social and voluntary services besides training them in various vocations according to their skills, in turn making them more productive. They may also be made permanent recruits of the armed forces if they so wish.

This is only a brief idea of the advantages, but it is the concept here which I am looking to drive-in, which I am sure would do great good to our country despite all the implementing problems that may be associated with it.