Kargil Vijay Diwas: 3 states comprise nearly third of recent Army recruits

Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan account for more than 30 per cent of all Indian Army recruitments in the three years leading into the pandemic in 2020.

The three states accounted for 55,087 recruits in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, according to data laid before Parliament as of March 2022. There were 177,960 people recruited into the Army in these three years. There were no recruitments in 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to the pandemic.

As many as 21,086 people recruited to the Army in Uttar Pradesh, the most among states. It was followed by Punjab and Rajasthan, with 18,644 and 15,357 recruitments, respectively. Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttarakhand were among the other major states for recruitment.

Nepal sent 5,411 recruits to the Indian Army over the same three-year period. This included 1,049 in 2017-18, 2502 in 2018-19 and 1860 in 2019-20. This was greater than 23 states and union territories, going by a government reply in Parliament.

India on Wednesday marked Kargil Vijay Diwas to commemorate its military victory against Pakistan in 1999.