Bunkered Down
The disabled from the paramilitary corps have more battles to fight to get their due
Bunkered Down
Parity demands by the All India Central Paramilitary Forces
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Kulbhushan Kumar, who at age 35 has to get by with an artificial device implanted to support his kidneys, says: “Once a soldier gets wounded, the immediate reaction by the force is to board him out as soon as possible. I have lost a vital body part. My monthly pension is Rs 10,000. I need medication of Rs 4,000 every month. Most of the time the medicines I need are not available at the BSF hospital. I had been in treatment for four years when they finally retrenched me from the BSF. The day I retired, my hospital discharge order was ready. I asked the medical superintendent to at least give me time to book my train tickets. He said that was my problem. That’s the kind of respect we get...and after sacrificing so much for the nation”.
About 2,000 cases pertaining to basic rights violations of soldiers of the CRPF, BSF and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are pending before the Delhi High Court alone. And there are cases in other courts too. Senior Chandigarh- based lawyer Rajeev Anand says, “I have handled several such cases. One client, an ex-ITBP soldier, is now working as a daily-wager since few other options are open. The department retired him after he lost a leg. There are many who are still getting monthly pensions as low as Rs 2,000. It’s a crisis situation.”
Reacting to the sorry state of affairs, Union home secretary G.K. Pillai commented: “We try to provide every possible comfort to the person being boarded out because of physical disability. Generally, there is a disability pension for them besides other benefits. The home ministry will certainly look into the grievances of such soldiers and officers. Let me assure you that the problems will be addressed. We will see that the situation improves.”
Indeed, this stepbrotherly treatment is evident at every stage for disabled paramilitary service personnel. Injured soldiers are not provided support by even the state defence service welfare boards. The services are restricted to ex-servicemen of the army, navy and air force. The condition is such that ex-paramilitary personnel are entangled in litigation even for the release of their benefits under the Seema Prahari Bima Yojana.
Satpal Singh, who was injured in a militant strike in Kashmir in 1997, asks, “I have been getting a monthly pension of Rs 2,744 since 2006. My medical expenses alone come to Rs 1,500 in a month. I have three children going to school. My wife has just got a job with the anganwadi but that pays only about Rs 400. How on earth can we live a decent life? There is no support even for my medical bills. My only hope is the courts now... and this is to get basic facilities.”
When contacted, former BSF DG Ajay Raj Sharma told Outlook of the limitations the organisation work with: “I agree the situation is bad. Ideally, the disabled jawans should be accommodated within the organisation on some desk jobs. If that isn’t possible, they should at least be well looked after. But there are limitations to accommodating everyone because the quota for those suffering from handicaps is just two per cent. So other schemes need to be strengthened.”
Retired BSF IG V.S. Sirohi has altogether another take on this. “We have to get to the root cause. The problem is they are not even well-trained, so the chances of getting hurt during operations is that much more. It’s high time the government paid attention to not only a proper rehabilitation package but also an overall revamp of the paramilitary forces,” he says. Sirohi’s seems to be a valid point. If the paramilitary forces have to attract fresh talent, they must ensure their jawans/officers get a less ad-hoc system—a more complete battle-readiness, and a security net for things going wrong.