Conscription in Barrayar

Conscription in Barrayar is a 24 month draft, mandatory for all male citizens age 20-30, with a number of exceptions but withholding any recognition of conscientious objection to military service. This conscription creates a large pool of military reserve ready to be mobilized in the case of war, while permitting a smaller active army during the peace time. Conscripts are normally sent to serve far away from their place of residence. All able-bodied male students of universities and other institutions of higher education were subject to training at the military chairs to become reservist officers. Women are not conscripted. However, they are permitted to join the Imperial Women's Auxiliary.
Conscription was introduced during the Vorkosigan Regency, as part of Vorkosigan military reforms: it went into full force in 2914, and was enacted in order to provide both a sense of planetary unity and a widespread basic technical education. Nowadays conscription consists of eight months of combat training, then 16 months service at the assigned post. The conscripted soldier would normally reach the rank of Corporal. During his service, he gets free health care, housing, food, and a railway ticket allowing him to travel between his home and the military base. Conscripts get paid between 8.50 and 10.50 Imperial Marks per day of basic pay.
Also Komarrans are subject to the conscription duty, but are screened by the Imperial Security before they get actually enrolled in the Imperial Service in order to avoid subversives and security threats. Those who are discarded for security reasons have some limitations in public employment.
Conscripts are used exclusively for the needs associated with operations, logistics, and training missions concerning services of general barracks. In addition, the compulsory military service provides, as an integral part of the m military preparation, ethics learning, professional qualification and sports activities conducted by qualified instructors.

Administration

The conscription is administered by the Military Personnel Administration. There are two tiers of service: active duty and non-active duty service. The non-active duty service is from 36 months to 48 months.
Conscription can be carried out not only as a soldier, but also as a first appointment complement officer, who belongs to the category of retired officers. Some types of service, absolutely voluntary, are considered useful for the purpose of the fulfilment of compulsory military service: the service carried out as a fixed officer and as a 2-years voluntary service.

Draft Commissions

Draft Commissions are a part of the selection instrument, which registers and selects men of military age for conscription. Commissions are both local and district-wide:

• Local Draft Commission: is a Commission that administers and executes the main provisions: its functions comprise the registration, rejection and selection of men of military age as fixed by legislative enactments. It is also responsible for the part of mobilization up to arrival in camp. A local draft commission has jurisdiction over a prescribed territory determined by population.
• District Draft Commission: A district commission is established in each Imperial Service District and hears appeals from the decisions of the local draft boards.

Individuals subject to military service

All male subjects of the Empire are obliged to military service, through the Conscription Lists, formed by the Local Draft Commission, which are recorded in all the young people at the age of 17th year of age. These lists are published at the Register hall of the municipality of residence and in any case the stakeholders are informed by posting appropriate posters.
At the age of eighteen years, subjects support the medical examination of conscription and if declared fit for military service takes place. Usually between the visit and actual enrolment there is a maximum gap of six months.
The outcome of the visits carried out by military doctors and last for three days, can be of three types:

• Suitable for military service: in this case the conscript is expected to enrol;
• Revisable: in this case the conscript must resubmit the following year to re-visits as deemed temporarily unfit. If the illness persists even on the second visit the subject is rejected.
• Rejected: This judgement confirms the permanent unfitness for military service.

High school and college students may request the postponement of the service but not of the visit.

Exemption

The exemption from military service is scheduled for some situations:

• Athletes who perform outstanding results in Nexus-wide are granted exemptions but still required to do eight weeks of basic training: the exemption is based upon a prescribed and gradual scale;
• Studying in a full-time postgraduate education, or have a higher academic degree;
• Getting a medical certificate that shows that a person is unfit for service;
• Being a proven homosexual or bisexual;
• Having more than six children, or no less than three and at least one child younger than three years or, if Komarran, having more than three children, or no less than two and at least one child younger than three years.

Draft evasion is is a serious criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison, depending on the time spent dodging. Barrayaran conscription boards often perform conscription through detention. By law, it is also a punishable offence to speak publicly against the Imperial Service or conscription, as it's a crime to undermine "people's zeal" towards military and a separate crime to insult the spirit of the Imperial Service.

Cultural attitude towards conscription

The military has a strong part in Barrayaran social structure, and is generally regarded as one of the most trustworthy institutions of the country. Military service is perceived as a rite of passage: as it is often perceived as part of the natural order of life, and as a final school of socialization and maturing for young Barrayaran men. In part this attitude is framed by the proverb «Women have birth, men have the army», meaning that both genders offer a service to their fatherland, women by giving birth and men by helping defend it.
All public bodies and most private companies require men to have completed their military service before their job candidacies can be accepted, since companies are legally bound to discharge draft evaders or face legal consequences, however valuable an asset these people are, and traditionally families do not consent to their daughters marrying men who have not served their terms.
In recent years military service has become less popular among some segments of society, particularly upper class living in major urban centres and on Komarr. Some draftees consider conscription a waste of time.

Military Reserve Forces

The Imperial Service needs to maintain a mobilization reserve to have manning resources capable of reinforcing the permanent readiness forces if the permanent readiness forces cannot deter or suppress an armed conflict on their own.
The Military Reserve Forces (MRF), is the reserve force of Barrayar. There are two major branches for Reserve Forces: the Mobilization Reserve Forces and the Homeland Reserve Forces. Soldiers who completed their conscription service are automatically transferred to Reserve Forces and must serve first 4 years as Mobilization Reserve and then next 4 years as Homeland Reserve. District Militias are part of the Homeland Reserve. The law specially reinforces the role of the voluntary reservist, who through authority of the Minister of Defence can be approved for serving in missions abroad.
The Imperial Service maintains its reserve formations with a skeleton crew of active duty soldiers, by requiring their reserves to train regularly. Training is considered being critical because an effective soldier is very much a technician. The effective maintenance and use of weapons and military equipment is possible only with constant practice. Reserves that do not regularly practice require one or more months to regain their skills. Trained reservists are useful for crushing local rebellions or natural disaster.
The responsibility for the regular training of reservists is assigned to the commander of the military districts. Reservists receive small money accounts being in reserve, in order to allow them to take risks at work calls for urgent duties and exercises.