Numbers of those exempted from military service heading upwards

print this

The number of Finnish men who are not required to carry out the armed national service is growing rapidly. Of those who were born in 1950, more than 90 per cent completed their statutory military service. For the young men born in 1989, the corresponding figure is 82%. More than one in six young men these days are exempt from the armed service.
      The figure is expected to rise further still. In ten years’ time, perhaps only three out of four young men in Finland will complete their military service.
     
Especially the number of those young men who are exempt from the armed service already at the initial conscription meeting at the age of 18 is growing apace. In 2004, their share of all the draftees was 6.7%, but last year it was already up to 9%.
      The figures as such are not huge, but the growth rate is rapid: 34 per cent in three years.
     
The most common reason is health. “The health-related criteria have been redefined”, explains Navy chief surgeon, Commodore Kai Parkkola.
      “Being exempted already at the initial drafting occasion is better for the young man himself as well.”
      The instructions were tightened up in 2006, and they are introduced gradually. According to Parkkola’s estimate, the percentage of those relieved from the armed service will continue to grow by one or two percentage-points.
     
The aim is to lower the number of those who have had to terminate their armed service once they have already started it.
      "The number of military service drop-outs has risen within the last two years”, explains Lieutenant Commander Jyrki Kivelä of the Defence Command Personnel Department. The trend looks set to continue this year.
      “We tightened the enrolment requirements because we do not want a huge number of the draftees to drop out. The new physical examination instructions pay attention for instance to excess weight and use of intoxicants. The average weight of the servicemen is going up and their 12-minute Cooper test results are getting weaker.“
      An average national serviceman now runs only 2.4 kilometres in 12 minutes, which is 300 metres less than in the 1970s.
      “The old approach was: let’s take care of the military one way or another. Today’s thinking is: a national serviceman has to be in shape to be appointable to a war-time assignment.”
     
If one is to drop out it usually happens during the initial few weeks. Five to six per cent of the conscripts go home almost immediately. Of those who started their military service in January, 12 per cent, in other words one in eight, took off after two weeks.
      This is mostly because of the initial shock, explains Kivelä, and he continues to list reasons: “Fears, problems in the civilian life, and the new surroundings that one fails to adapt to.”
      Most young men seek to complete their military service immediately after finishing the upper secondary school, which means they have not yet had a chance to accumulate work and life experiences. Group and social behaviour may still be alien to them.
     
Towards the end of the service time, another two per cent will drop out, this year it will be closer to 3%. In all, 14-15 per cent of the conscripts fail to complete their military service, which is nearly twice as many as in 1985-1998. Kivelä believes that the tightening of the health requirements will lower the number of drop-outs to 11-12%.
     
Every second drop-out leaves uniform because of mental health reasons.
      Adaptability disorders, anxiety, and psychological problems could have been established already in the initial conscript meeting had there been a better flow of information from the mental health side, Kivelä says.
      “Mental health problems and a gun is always a bad combination.”
     
In the initial conscript meeting the prospective conscripts are ranked into four categories. Category A means fit for any kind of service, B is fit for service with restrictions. Category C men are freed from service during peacetime.
      The former D category, which meant total exemption from military service, has been fused in with C. Category E includes those, whose fitness for military service cannot be evaluated now. They will be re-examined at a later date.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish military fights flabby conscripts with low-calorie diets (21.4.2008)
  Minister of Defence Häkämies: Swedish motion to give up compulsory military service is not for Finland (16.5.2007)

Links:
  The Finnish Defence Forces

Helsingin Sanomat