Agnipath in Bihar: ‘I can't retire at age 26’

Vikas Kumar had to stop physical fitness training for recruitment in the Indian Army due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At the start of 2022, he resumed his daily regimen which included running 4-5 laps on the 400-metre track at the airport ground in Arrah to reach a distance of 1.6 kilometres. "I would complete that distance in around 5 minutes and 20 seconds to 5 minutes and 25 seconds,” he says.

He would then repeat that run 5-6 times in a day, always keeping an eye on his timing. And that’s apart from 8-10 quick pull-ups at one go; multiple squats, push-ups and a range of other exercises. “Had I got to participate in physical fitness tests [army recruitment] I would have got the 'excellent' mark on my body,” he says. If a candidate finishes running the required distance well ahead of time, army officials stamp that very word on his chest.

Vikas was ready to ace the recruitment physical test.

But June 2022 saw him defeated by a development that for many youngsters proved more lethal than Covid-19. This was not a pandemic-level disease, but a policy-driven ailment.

It was called the Agnipath Scheme. And, if he maxed this test, he would not get ‘excellent’ stamped on his chest – just ‘Agniveer’ stamped on his uniform and gear.

“First, Covid-19 persisted for two years and I had to stay at home, so physical practice stopped. Then when it ended, the government announced the Agnipath Scheme,” he says.

On June 14, 2022, the union cabinet approved the Agnipath, an ‘attractive’ recruitment scheme. Under this, youths would be recruited in the army for just four years instead of the regular cadre, whose minimum service is of 15 years. They would be called Agniveers, which translates literally, as ‘fire-warriors’.

Vikas is baffled by the idea of just four years of employment. “I can’t retire at age 26,” he says.

The union government tom-tommed the scheme as one which would “usher in a new era in the Human Resource policy of the three Services.”

What it actually did was to jeopardise the careers of lakhs of youth hoping to join the Indian Army.

Vikas grew up seeing his father and grandfather wearing army uniforms and dreamt of becoming, like them, a soldier.

“Fauj mein jana mere bachpan ka sapna tha. Hum doosre kisi job ke bare mein sochte hi nahi the [Joining the Indian Army was my childhood dream. I had never thought of doing any other job],” Vikas says as he looks at the now deserted airport ground in Arrah city where he used to prepare for physical fitness tests. Arrah, in Bhojpur district of Bihar, has been a major army recruitment centre from long before he was born. His own village Ratan Dularpur falls within Arrah block.

He was just 16 when he appeared for the matriculation exams in 2019.The now 21-year-old says: “Papa ko Army ki wardi mein dekhkar garv hota tha…Army ki wardi pahanne se alag hi feeling aati hai [I would feel proud of my father in Army dress…donning an army uniform gives you a special feeling].”

Vikas’ dream got a further push when his elder brother joined the army – the third generation of the family to do so – around the time he passed his matric exams.

He recalls those days when he would do rigorous physical training, riding nine kilometres on his motorbike, from his village to the airport ground.

But Agnipath killed his enthusiasm. He stopped going for physical training. “My six months of fitness training went in vain. I felt cheated,” he says.

However, despite this, at one point he decided to join as an Agniveer under the ‘relationship quota’ but his family members wouldn’t hear of it.

Relationship quota is for those youth whose relatives are in the Indian Army or were martyred while serving in it. For jobs in the army under this quota, one has to get a ‘Relationship Certificate’ issued from the relevant Army Records Office, duly signed by the concerned Records Officer.

"When I asked my brother to get me a Relationship Certificate, he told me that there was no value to being an Agniveer in the army and so I should not join," he says.

He is now focussing on his chances of entering the Bihar Police, Border Security Force (BSF), or other government jobs.

“I can't retire at the age of 26 years,” he says.

“Who wants to be called ‘Agniveer’ instead of ‘fauji saheb’?” he asks.

Earlier, aspirants had to first participate in physical fitness tests. Those who would qualify at the fitness level had to appear in written tests. With the Agnipath Scheme, the process changed. Now, aspirants have to first appear for a computer-based online written exam and those who qualify in that, participate in physical fitness tests.

Army physical fitness tests are rigorous.

According to documents available on the website of the Indian Army, female candidates who pass the written test have to complete a 1.6 km run in 7 minutes and 30 seconds. As many as 60 marks are allotted for this test. Apart from that, they have to qualify in 10-foot long jump and three-foot high jump tests.

Male candidates have to complete a 1.6 km race in five minutes and 30 seconds. Again, 60 marks are fixed for this. In beam pull-ups, 40 marks are given for a maximum of 10 pull-ups and 16 for a minimum of six.

Apart from this, one has to jump across a nine-foot long ditch. Then there is the zig-zag balance test. This consists of walking swiftly or snaking through irregular pieces of wood, about 10 feet long and a foot wide. No marks are given for either of these tests, but qualifying is mandatory for recruitment.

It is difficult for aspirants to do such tough training without guidance, so they need experienced instructors.

These ‘must-qualify-criteria’ created a huge market for physical fitness training institutes in the district.

Ramna Maidan, Veer Kunwar Singh Stadium grounds, the grounds at the airport, Jain College grounds and other landmark open grounds of Arrah city used to be packed with hundreds of youths sweating for at least two to three hours under their trainers’ watchful eyes – before Agnipath. After the scheme came up, youth have turned their eyes away from the army.

This disenchantment among youth has had a cascading negative effect on physical training institutes.

As PARI’s reporters have pointed out in earlier stories, too: till 2020, average annual recruitment to the armed forces stood at around 61,000.

Under Agnipath, launched in June 2022, this would fall to around 46,000 youngsters. What’s more, it ended hopes of a lifelong career in the army – so important to many rural youths. Now on, they would have just a four-year tenure. After which only a fourth would be absorbed into the army’s regular cadre.

Running into that reality crushed Vikas Kumar’s dreams. “Main itna sadme mein tha ki do-teen mahine tak ground mein jana chhod diya tha aur aage ki padhai par focus karne laga [I was so shocked, I stopped going to the ground for two-three months and started focusing on further studies],” he says.

And then there’s earnings.

In the first year on joining, an Agniveer gets Rs. 30,000 a month which can go up to Rs. 40,000 in the fourth year. Of this amount, 30 per cent is deducted every month towards the Agniveer Corpus Fund. The government also contributes an equal amount to it. At exit time after four years, the Agniveer is entitled to a tax-exempt amount of Rs. 11.71 lakh as Seva Nidhi from the corpus fund.

Note that 50 per cent of that Seva Nidhi ‘package’ comes from the Agniveer’s own salary. And a bit of it from the interest on his contribution.

The way it works, an Agniveer gets Rs.21,000 in hand every month in the first year. That rises to Rs. 23,100 every month in the second year; to Rs. 25,500 in the third year, and it peaks at Rs. 28,000 in the fourth and final year.

Agniveers are provided a Life Insurance Cover of Rs. 48 lakh for the duration of their engagement period in the armed forces. A regular soldier gets gratuity for 15 days a year for every year of service, and is provided an insurance cover of Rs. 50 lakh. And a soldier also gets a pension. Agniveers are not entitled to either gratuity or pension.

A regular Indian Army soldier gets a salary of Rs. 25,000 on joining at the level of Sepoy. That can go up to Rs. 50,000 if he makes it to Subedar rank. In addition, there are several monthly add-ons like Dearness and Transport Allowance, yearly allowances for uniform, particular field area postings, and so on. Indian military personnel also get free medical facilities, lifetime pension after retirement, and access to discounted purchase of goods at the armed forces stores during service and after retirement.

Agniveers get none of these allowances, free services and benefits. And their families are not entitled to compensation for death in action of the Agniveer.

So, what does the future hold?

“The future is over. The Agnipath Scheme has ended my career,” says six-foot tall physical fitness trainer Jadu Yadav. We are speaking to him at his newly constructed house on the outskirts of Arrah city. The house, he says, “was built to make it a lodge for army aspirants from remote villages so that they could stay here.”

In 2021, Jadu decided to make his career as a physical fitness trainer and, with much enthusiasm, bought battle ropes, speed huddles, box jumps, mattresses and other exercise gear from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh – a hub of gym equipment manufacture.

He spent Rs. 5 lakhs doing that. But these now lie scattered and unattended on the ground floor of his house.

Now, whenever he sees the equipment, he feels sorry.

“I took a loan of 4 lakh rupees at 4 per cent monthly interest from a local lender [That is, an annual rate of 48 per cent]. To which I added a lakh from my savings," Jadu says. “We took a chhota haathi [literally small elephant, but referring here to a matador van] and brought the equipment from Meerut. I was so happy to get all this," the 30-year-old trainer says.

The youngest of three brothers and four sisters, Jadu has been running a physical academy at the airport grounds to train youth aspiring to join the Army.

“I was good at running so I thought of training young army aspirants. To give them proper coaching, I graduated in Physical Training from an institute in UP,” he says.

He would train four batches of 200 youth daily. More than 90 per cent of these youth would be preparing for the Indian Army. He recalls: “I would earn 50,000 rupees a month.”

Once Agnipath came in, “the number of young men taking physical training fell to less than half. In that group too, there are only 10-12 boys willing to join the army. The rest are preparing for the Bihar and Jharkhand police," he says.

Jadu now earns just Rs. 15-20,000 a month, and it is not regular. Earlier, physical fitness tests were the entry point so youth would prepare the whole year. Now aspirants join physical training only after they qualify in a written test. Applying for the Bihar police too, written tests are conducted first and only on clearing those can candidates appear for the physical eligibility test.

“Those who qualify in the written test, join my physical practice classes for just two to three months. That’s because the government gives two to three months’ time between the written test and physical tests,” he says.

That, he points out, “makes me unemployed for months.” Which makes it hard to meet the needs of his family – a wife, a three-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter.

So now Jadu Yadav is trying his luck in the Bhojpuri music industry.

“Every evening I practice singing, with a music teacher, for two hours, accompanying myself on a harmonium which I had bought from Jharia in Jharkhand,” he says, while bringing out the instrument. His voice syncs well with the sound of the harmonium.

“Bhojpuri singers are making good money from YouTube by releasing songs online,” he says, “I think I can also make it if I do it regularly… it is not possible any longer to make a career in physical training due to the Agnipath Scheme.”

Meanwhile, 38-year-old Mohan Singh, another physical fitness trainer in Arrah, is now focusing on sports.

“I started giving physical training courses five years ago, and had 300 youngsters at the time, but now I have stopped it,” he says. “After the advent of Agnipath, there is not a single youth preparing for the army. They have become disheartened. The physical fitness training business has shut down.”

An arts graduate, Mohan Singh who is from the Rajput community, was always interested in sports and used to practice Thai boxing. ‘Muay Thai’ is a martial art that originated in Thailand centuries ago. Fighters commonly employ strikes, sweeps, and clinch techniques and use fists, elbows, knees and shins while fighting. This sport is also called “Art [or Science] of eight limbs".

But Mohan had to “leave this dream as I got no government support and also my family didn't see sports as a career,” he says.

“But I didn’t want youth to give up on their dreams of joining the army, so I started giving them physical training at just Rs. 200 per month,” he says.

After Agnipath came into being, the training has almost stopped. “Now I have turned the physical academy into a sports institute. I have hired experts to teach sports like weightlifting, boxing, wrestling, etc,” Mohan Singh says.

He is very critical of Agnipath and says it is not good for the youth.

Many lower middle-class families in Bihar are dependent on government jobs, especially in the armed forces. Children start preparing for the army, for instance, after the Class 10 examination, hoping that if they get a job in the army, the future of the next several generations of their families would be stabilised.

“But the families of those who are getting jobs under Agnipath are not happy because they know that they will lose the job after four years. And after that they will not have enough stamina to prepare for another government job again,” he says.

Anger among Bihar’s youth appear to have been reflected in negative outcomes for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections. In Bihar, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lost 9 of the 39 seats it had swept in 2019 to the INDIA Alliance. The BJP lost five and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) lost four seats.

In the Arrah Lok Sabha seat, two-time BJP member of parliament, former central minister and bureaucrat R.K. Singh lost to Communist Party of India ML (Liberation) leader Sudama Prasad. R K Singh had won with a nearly 1.5 lakh margin in 2019. In 2024, he lost to Sudama Prasad by close to 60,000 votes.

Soon after the 2024 results, sensing the anger among youth and their families against Agnipath, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), alliance partner of the BJP in Bihar, demanded a review of the scheme.

“There is anger among voters over the Agniveer scheme. Our party wants those shortcomings to which people have objections, to be removed,” JDU leader KC Tyagi was quoted as saying in the New Indian Express.

The coming of Agnipath in 2022 saw even those who had made it past Phase 1 of selection in the last year of general recruitment take a blow. Many had cleared the daunting physical tests in 2021. Only the written exam remained. The union government cancelled their selection and said that those who had already cleared the tests would also have to go through the process afresh under the new scheme.

Mohan Singh says he believes that “due to this decision, many youths committed suicide because they had taken loans and sold land to pay fraudulent brokers and middlemen who promised to get them the required medical and other certification. Also, many had crossed the age limit in that last successful attempt to enter the army.”

Bitterness over the exclusion of successful candidates saw that decision challenged in the courts. But the Delhi High Court upheld the validity of the scheme. And the Supreme Court refused to entertain petitions challenging the Delhi High Court’s order.

Twenty-three-year-old Bittu Yadav, from an OBC community, was one of those who had qualified in the tests. “In 2021, I qualified in both the running and other physical tests. Only the written exam remained – but Agnipath came, and the recruitment was cancelled,” he says. He could not even attempt entry under Agniveer as he had passed the upper limit of 21 years.

Today, he works in a steel manufacturing unit in Jharkhand. “Joining the army was my passion,” he says. “But Agnipath destroyed my career.”

He is the youngest of three brothers and his father is a farmer. His other brothers are in the private sector, but his father wanted him to join a government job. So, he decided to prepare for the Indian Army as it would have fulfilled two dreams: his own, of becoming an army jawan and that of his father – of Bittu landing a government job.

“Now,” says Bittu “there is a lot of pressure at home to get a government job. In fact, I joined this steel plant in Jharkhand to stay away from my family.”

“If I had not gone to Jharkhand, I would have committed suicide due to mental stress.”