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| Par panel wants system of 'sahayaks' abolished in Army | | | AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, Oct 22: With the armed forces facing increasing rates of suicides and fratricide by personnel, a Parliamentary Committee has sought the immediate abolition of the system of 'sahayaks' for officers in order to stop the misuse of 'jawans' for menial jobs.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, in its 31st report on "Stress Management in Armed Forces" placed in Lok Sabha found the practice of 'batmans' followed from the days of the British and later re-christened as 'sahayaks' to be "shameful, humiliating and lowering the self-esteem" of a jawan.
"It is learnt that numerous jawans are engaged at the residence of some of the senior officers for domestic work and to serve family members of officers," the report said after examining the subject in the context of stress management.
Stating that misuse of jawans for menial jobs was one of the reasons for them to get stressed, the committee headed by Balasaheb Vikhe Patil termed the practice as "demeaning" and recommended that strict instructions be issued to "stop forthwith" the practice.
It also wanted the government to deal seriously with officers found violating the instructions in this regard.
"A representative of the Army categorically deposed before the committee that the jawans are not technically supposed to attend to household duties at the residence of officers and personnel attending such duties do so due to their reverence," the report said.
The committee said the jawans were recruited for serving the nation and did not join the army to do household work of officers, which was demeaning and humiliating.
"The committee takes a very serious view of the shameful practice, which should have no place in independent India," the report, submitted in Parliament yesterday said.
The committee also had a word of advice for the Home Ministry, asking it to abolish such a system for jawans in para-military organisations too.
In the officers category, Majors and above get a 'sahayak' each and those below Captain get to share a 'sahayak' with another officer. In the Junior Commissioned Officers category, Subedar Majors get a 'sahayak', while there is a 'sahayak' for every two JCOs.
Noting that the three armed forces recorded 635 cases of suicides and attempted suicides and 67 cases of fratricidal killings during 2003-2007 period, the committee said the statistics indicated that army was the worst affected by the malady in terms of numbers.
Expressing grave concern on the alarming trend of suicides and fratricides, Parliament members attributed it to increased stress environment leading to psychological imbalance in the soldiers.
Since 2005, the army alone has conducted seven studies on the issue, besides one each by IAF and Navy. |
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