New Delhi: As many as 1,148 officers left the Army voluntarily from 2016 to 2018, followed by 575 officers from the Air Force and 377 from Navy, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

In a written response to a question on attrition in the three armed forces, Shripad Naik, Minister of State in the Defence Ministry said the Army saw 353 officers voluntarily leaving the force in 2016, followed by 383 in 2017 and 412 officers in 2018.

In 2016, 186 officers left the Air Force followed by 205 in 2017 and 186 in 2018, he said.

As many as 138 officers left the Navy in 2016 followed by 137 in 2017 and 102 in 2018, the minister said.

Naik said recruitment in the armed forces is a continuous process and the government has taken a number of measures to reduce the shortages.

“These 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.

“Further, the government has taken various steps to make jobs in the armed forces attractive including improvement in promotion prospects,” he said.

Replying to a separate question, the MoS said recruitment in the Army is done regularly through Army Recruiting Offices (AROs) spread across the country, including the state of Jammu and Kashmir.