There are about 45,000 officers in the 1.1 million-strong Indian Army while the rest are soldiers. The Sixth Pay Commission has recommended only Rs 1,000 per month as Military Service Pay (MSP) for PBORs whereas officers will get an MSP of Rs 6,000 per month.

Even in the case of allowances, soldiers get less than officers. For instance, currently, an officer gets Rs 7,000 per month as Siachen allowance while a soldier gets Rs 4,667 per month. So far as counter-insurgency operations allowance is concerned, an officer gets between Rs 3,150 to Rs 3,900 per month while a soldier gets between Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,700 per month.

“While our pay scales are lower than those of officers, we could at least have got an MSP of Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per month. An MSP of Rs 1,000 is unfair. Such a recommendation was sheer injustice with the jawans, given that the contribution of soldiers is no less than officers,” an army jawan said.

Army officers in Western command say MSP is defined, as a sum of money to alleviate hardship, should be paid according to the rank and the terrain in which troops are serving. There was a need to recommend percentage based MSP. But it is a fixed amount, Rs 6000, leading to a lot of anomalies in the recommendations of the pay commission.

Now, the MSP represents nearly 25 per cent of the pay of the junior most commissioned officer in the services — a Lieutenant— but is barely 10 per cent of the pay of a Brigadier.

On the other hand, ex-servicemen have shown their resentment for paying no attention to the disability and family pension. A jawan gets Rs 1,550, JCO Rs 1,900, and an officer Rs 2,600 as hundred per cent disability pension. There is twelve per cent annual fallout rate in the Indian Army.