There has been many a times, General Naravane recapitulated, when the youth has approached him and asked the most common yet an intriguing question – “What life in the army is all about?” According to him, it was this very curiosity of the young generation leading a civilian life that gave birth to the idea of “Tour of Duty” – an opportunity for the non-defence background individuals to know what a life of a soldier is like.
The ‘Tour of Duty’ provides a glimpse of the army life to the general public, but for a short period of time, a golden chance for those who are not interested to take defence as their lifelong career, but only want to partake the real experience of it. “And it is in this background we are looking at, that can we induct a few people, maybe a thousand a year to start with, for a period of a three years, maybe a truncated training period of six to nine months, and after that, a two years and a half or so, when he serves in the regular army”, confirmed General Naravane.
A candidate can join at the age of 18 years and after serving in the army, he can be free after 21 years of age to pursue the career of his choice in any field. Naravane claimed that his experience in the army will pose as an “added advantage” for it will surely train him in such priceless attributes of army life, viz. “self-confidence, discipline, punctuality” and others, benefitting not only in his character development but also eventually, that of the “society, at large”. An individual inducted in the “Tour of Duty” will get a brownie point in his CV for serving in the army and will be undoubtedly prioritized above any fresher to get selected by the companies he will be applying to. General Naravane exemplified the importance of work experience for MBA candidates and emphasized the fact that serving in the army can be especially advantageous for such candidates as one of the best instances of work experience.
He further said that after propagating the idea of “Tour of Duty” they “have had even overwhelming responses from the environment”. As a survey result, 92 percent of the surveyees said that they would be interested to be a part of the idea of “Tour of Duty”. “So, I think this is definitely an idea which we can pursue,” assured the General with a final determination.
