Individual Aspirations - A Barrier for Second Career of Veterans

The intellect and passion with which a person is using his equipment is the principal factor to win a war. In order to keep a youthful profile of the forces, almost 55,000-70,000 personnel of the army, navy, and the air force inevitably relinquish their uniform every year and become Ex- Servicemen (ESM). A significant amount of national human resource, taxpayers' money, time and infra-structure are utilised in the painstaking procedures of recruitment, training, and operations involving personnel, to churn them into a professional force. These veterans constitute a readily available, well-trained, disciplined, experienced, and versatile team of human re-source that can be harnessed towards a constructive role in nation building. At the personal and humane front this ex-serviceman (ESM) is in the late 30s or early 40s when released from service, is still young and he still has major responsibilities towards his family. Enormous responsibilities are still there to be take care of by these ESM, with their limited resources, relying mainly on their pension. The significance of providing satisfactory services to the ex-servicemen for their resettlement thus assumes greater magnitude. In today's environment, wherein new livelihood are being created at all levels in the various businesses and industries government owned or not; it is seen that a great percentage of our ESM are not able to take up suitable vocation. This study is aimed on devising methods and standards to identify the growing ambitions of veterans for a smooth transition into a second career after hanging their uniform and in the expanding avenues of employment in the outside world.