Indian Armed Forces including Army, Navy and Air Force are falling short of 9,712 officers and over one lakh soldiers, airmen and sailors, as per the latest figures. Bifurcating the data, Indian Army has a shortage of 7,912 officers and 90,640 soldiers, while Navy has a shortage of 1,190 officers and 11,927 sailors. The IAF, in turn, has a shortage of 610 officers and 7,104 airmen.
Junior defence minister Ajay Bhatt, presented this information in the Rajya Sabha.
| Service | Vacant | ||
| Officers | MNS | JCOs/ORs/Airmen/Sailors | |
| Indian Army | 7912 | – | 90640 |
| Indian Air Force | 610 | – | 7104 |
| Indian Navy | 1190 | – | 11927 |
| Med & Dental Br | 444 | 693 | 1206 |
Below is the state-wise strength of JCOs/ORs in Army, Airmen in Air Force (including Nepal) and Sailors in Navy.
| State/ Union Territory | Indian Army (No. of JCOs/Ors) | . | . | Indian Air Force (No of Airmen) | . | . | Indian Navy (No of Sailors) | . | . |
| . | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Andaman & Nicobar | 36 | 13 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 2139 | 2714 | 2399 | 113 | 50 | 30 | 329 | 336 | 14 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 254 | 167 | 63 | 23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Assam | 1104 | 752 | 1086 | 57 | 60 | 32 | 14 | 24 | 53 |
| Bihar | 4223 | 2402 | 3405 | 150 | 530 | 670 | 463 | 460 | 156 |
| Chhattisgarh | 793 | 715 | 591 | 109 | 76 | 105 | 16 | 39 | 39 |
| Delhi | 213 | 256 | 230 | 41 | 67 | 67 | 83 | 81 | 42 |
| Goa | 26 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 8 | 4 | 3 |
| Gujarat | 2176 | 980 | 1490 | 19 | 94 | 8 | 62 | 104 | 95 |
| Haryana | 4994 | 3859 | 3825 | 859 | 1501 | 1719 | 637 | 659 | 404 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 3266 | 3309 | 3571 | 38 | 19 | 19 | 57 | 50 | 20 |
| J & K and Ladakh | 3466 | 1562 | 2834 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 59 | 51 | 27 |
| Jharkhand | 1519 | 1285 | 755 | 85 | 41 | 285 | 133 | 124 | 51 |
| Karnataka | 1730 | 1738 | 2852 | 37 | 91 | 254 | 72 | 91 | 157 |
| Kerala | 2210 | 1203 | 1847 | 279 | 14 | 11 | 210 | 247 | 171 |
| Lakshadweep | 7 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 3238 | 2009 | 1951 | 104 | 274 | 258 | 423 | 329 | 92 |
| Maharashtra | 4356 | 4238 | 3941 | 101 | 178 | 187 | 395 | 520 | 264 |
| Manipur | 477 | 382 | 568 | 22 | 55 | 25 | 9 | 13 | 7 |
| Meghalaya | 94 | 126 | 68 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Mizoram | 242 | 58 | 288 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Nagaland | 166 | 92 | 56 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Odisha | 1251 | 586 | 1113 | 95 | 79 | 170 | 225 | 207 | 55 |
| Punjab | 7079 | 5117 | 5821 | 69 | 78 | 100 | 115 | 133 | 66 |
| Chandigarh | 63 | 71 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Rajasthan | 5617 | 5569 | 4868 | 1466 | 1426 | 1879 | 974 | 955 | 248 |
| Sikkim | 231 | 23 | 194 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Tamil Nadu | 3404 | 2363 | 2050 | 221 | 66 | 2 | 21 | 72 | 100 |
| Puducherry | 5 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| Telangana | 1311 | 1252 | 1639 | 11 | 25 | 26 | 62 | 105 | 107 |
| Tripura | 47 | 633 | 37 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 7600 | 8098 | 7162 | 2635 | 2188 | 2345 | 1284 | 1140 | 449 |
| Uttarakhand | 3482 | 3494 | 2805 | 54 | 96 | 83 | 54 | 65 | 22 |
| West Bengal | 2497 | 1906 | 2707 | 237 | 187 | 96 | 165 | 246 | 124 |
| Nepal | – | – | – | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – |
Ajay Bhatt said “The Government has taken a number of measures to reduce the shortages. These, inter-alia, include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career. To encourage the youth to join the Armed Forces, motivational lectures are regularly organized in schools/colleges/other educational institutes and National Cadet Corps (NCC) camps. Further, the Government has taken various steps to make the job in the Armed Forces attractive including improvement in promotion prospects in the Armed Forces and to fill up vacancies.”
