Housing for retired Indian defence personnel (Jawans)

Abstract

Indian Army is one of the largest army of the world with a serving strength of 1.4Mn including Airforce and Navy and 2.5 Mn retired defence personnel. Every year on an average 60,000 defence service personnel retire. Majority of the retired service personnel are Jawans , the lower rank personnel whose age at the retirement is usually around 40 yrs. In addition, India is having about 1Mn Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), commonly known as paramilitary forces. The government of India has accorded the status of ex-serviceman to the retired personnel of Central Armed Police Force personnel from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) also during Nov 2012. If the strength of retired paramilitary forces is also considered, then figure of retired service personnel will increase by more than 4 lakhs. The housing is the basic need of any person, more so for the Jawans, as they are retired from the service at a very young age. The availability of housing in open market is limited and also quite costly, as a result not affordable to the larger population of ex-servicemen i.e. Jawans. This paper is focussing on the issue of the housing need of the ex-servicemen from the army. Directorate General of Resettlement, under Min. of Defence, is the organization responsible for various welfare activities of ex-servicemen. It assists ex-servicemen in training and acquiring additional skills and thus facilitate their resettlement through a second career. The service personnel having acquired certain competencies during their service career need to reorient their skills and attitude for second career post retirement. Depending upon the aptitude of individual, the relevant field of training is chosen. Directorate General of Resettlement helps in generating opportunities for reemployment and entrepreneurship for ex-servicemen. Thus, the need for training and skill development of ex-servicemen is taken care by resettlement directorate, however there is no committed policy to take care of their housing need. Several organizations like AWHO (Army Welfare Housing Organization), AFNHB (Air force Naval Housing Board) etc. which are in the field of construction of houses on No Profit No loss basis, try to address the housing needs of ex-serviceman by building houses directly. These organizations are not able to fulfil the housing need, due to primarily non-availability of suitable land at reasonable prices and at desired places. According to the survey conducted, only 8% PBOR (Personnel Below Officers Rank) purchased their houses through these organization. The educational standard of PBOR in Defence Services is also comparatively low. In addition to their low education standard, the other important factor is that most of the times, their postings are in field and in far flung areas. During field postings, there is no provision of family accommodation and hence the defence personnel have to stay separated from their families. This also results in their inability to plan their housing requirements. Majority of defence service personnel in PBOR come from rural background. After retirement, either they may go to their villages, if they have some agricultural land or else they have to shift to the nearby urban areas where they can get some reemployment based on their skills. According to the survey conducted 70% of the retired PBOR want to stay in vicinity of cantonment, due to proximity of CSD, ECHS polyclinic and Kendriya Vidyalaya. Housing and livelihood/jobs are complementary to each other. Hence for sustainability, housing and jobs needs to be co-located. Indian government has announced the mission Housing for all by 2022 , but will it serve the specific need of housing for PBOR. The service conditions of defence service personnel are also very different from that of civilian personnel, as they make supreme sacrifice of their life, while defending the nation and the PBOR retire from the service at a very young age 35-45 year. This mission under PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) is concentrating mainly on the EWS (Economic Weaker Section) population and slum dwellers. The state and central government can play a crucial role in ensuring the housing for PBOR. The land and finances are the major factors in housing industry. Land availability is the most vital factor. The availability of suitable land, at reasonable price and at proper location is the major hurdle. The land being the state subject, it is the responsibility of state government to arrange the suitable land for ESM housing. The central government through Ministry of Defence can work in coordination with state governments in identifying the feasibility of swapping of surplus and unusable military land. There are certain military farms, which are functioning inside the cantonments and the ministry of defence has taken a decision to close down many military farms. The feasibility of swapping the land released by closing down of these military farms, with state governments for ESM housing, may also be explored. In addition to land, finance is the other major factor. The housing industry being capital intensive, there is a requirement of ensuring the availability of required funds. The options like soft housing loan, involvement of private partnership by using different models like mix development cross subsidizing, annuity-based subsidizing, annuity cum capital grant-based subsidizing, direct relationship ownership housing, direct relationship rental housing etc. may be exercised. The state governments may find the valid reasons to provide land and other subsidy for ESM housing, in return of the availability of highly disciplined, economic and skilled manpower of ESM as a great demographic dividend. State governments can approach Dte. Gen of Resettlement through Rajya Sainik Board for getting the ESM trained in the particular trades, as per their requirements. The housing requirement of retired defence service PBOR can be addressed by the active participation of central and state governments. State government shall be benefitted by utilising the disciplined and skilled manpower of ex-servicemen. The central government in addition to fulfilment of their moral responsibility, can project itself as the government for Jawans. Considering the huge demand of housing and the above factors, there is a requirement of a separate policy or separate provisions in the existing housing policy for PBOR ex-servicemen.