ESM: Resettlement sans Honour and Dignity

Resettlement
Leaving the Armed Forces and resettling into civilian life can seem a daunting prospect. Do we have a reliable organisation that can help an ESM make a successful transition? Does the organisation provide guidance, advice, and information to assist retiring service personnel and those who have served in the armed forces, free of charge? When weighing up the success of resettlement, the most important factor for the majority of Service personnel leaving/ retiring (75% or more) is whether a suitable job is secured especially the 60,000 PBORs who retire each year at a relatively young age. In an increasingly competitive environment where people are often the key differentiator, you need to think beyond the norm and continually raise the level of talent and skills you can offer to civilian organisations. Successful resettlement requires a clear aim, a thorough personal evaluation, good job intelligence, effective networking and a well thought out approach to employers. Let us not make caricatures and cartoons of our Jawans by employing them increasingly as a demeaning low end Security Sentinel sans weapons dignity and honour.

Ex Servicemen Welfare Department
Employment of retired Army Officers. Army Officers in substantive rank of Colonel and below may be re-employed in Regular Army for two years in first instance provided they are not 55 years of age as per SAI 1/S/80 and are medically fit.
Comment: It is a degraded employment in that an Officer gets emoluments of a Junior Rank.

Commercial Employment in Private Sector. As per the provisions of AI 2/S/74, retired service officers of the rank of Col and above are required to seek prior permission of the Govt before taking up commercial employment in the private sector within two years of their date of retirement.

Resettlement in Civil Life. Retiring Army Officers may apply for civil employment. However, para 341 of Regulations for the Army 1987 enjoins that an officer who is granted any pension, gratuity or other benefit in respect of his/her Army service or who is likely to receive any pension, gratuity or other benefit, shall obtain the permission of the President before accepting any employment under a Government outside India at any time after his/her Army Service has ceased.

Security Agencies. The DGR registers/ sponsors security agencies for providing security guards to various PSUs and industries in the private sector. The scheme offers good self-employment opportunities to retired officers and adequate employment opportunity to ex-PBORs in a field where they have sufficient expertise. The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) had issued instructions to all PSUs to get security personnel through DGR sponsored Security Agencies. The scheme has shown good results. Through this scheme about 1800 ESM security agencies have been empanelled and approximately over 1,50,000 ESM have gained employment. Fresh forays have been made into the banking sector with active intercession of the Reserve Bank of India and the Finance Ministry. The RBI has issued instructions that the security of the treasury chests of all Banks in the country be entrusted to DGR sponsored ESM Security Agencies only in the absence of the Banks own integral security.
Comment: The security Guards are paid peanuts and the uniforms of the Guards are pathetic comic cartoon caricatures. They represent a debased exploited ESM employed in a despicable fashion. The whole scheme requires to be upgraded befitting of a Soldier's Honour.
BROCHURE ON TERMINAL BENEFITS: Employment