Daily Current Affairs Article 19th January 2021: More than half of Indian Army personnel seem to be under severe stress, according to the findings of a study by United Service Institution of India (USI), a Service think tank. The research was undertaken during 2019-20 by Col. AK Mor, Senior Research Fellow at the USI.
The Army has been losing more personnel every year due to suicides, fratricides and untoward incidents than in response to any enemy or terrorist activities.
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There has been a significant increase in stress levels amongst Indian Army personnel during approximately last two decades due to operational and non-operational stressors.
Prolonged exposure of Indian Army personnel to Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism (CI/CT) environment has been one of the contributory factors for increased stress levels.
While operational stressors are well understood and accepted by Army personnel, the study says that non-operational stressors that add on “have compounding adverse effects on health and combat efficiency of soldiers and thus affecting their respective units too.”
In this regard, officers experience comparatively much higher cumulative stress levels, compared to the Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO) and Other Ranks (OR) and the stress causative factors are also different.
Various management measures implemented by the Army and Defence Ministry in the last 15 years have not been able to achieve the desired results.
