Just compensation

The package of welfare measures announced by the central government for the families of the soldiers killed or injured in the Kargil oper...

The package of welfare measures announced by the central government for the families of the soldiers killed or injured in the Kargil operations is comprehensive. It is imaginative in that it takes care of the educational needs of the children and the dependent parents of the deceased and provides for purchase of equipment like motorised wheelchairs. Nonetheless it would have been timely if a clarification was made that victims of 8220;war-like8221; situations would be entitled to all the benefits that those who die or are injured in 8220;war8221; are.

This is because many ex-servicemen have expressed their misgivings on this score. However welcome the package may be, it is also a pointer to the anomalies that exist in the rules governing the welfare of the soldiers killed or injured in action. Ordinarily, the welfare system should have been resilient enough to cover all exigencies, including Kargil.

That it is not is borne out by the archaic rules which condemn a war widow to a lifetime8217;s loneliness if she is toreceive family pension, the only exception being if she marries the brother of her late husband. Similarly, full family pension, which is the equivalent to the last pay drawn by the deceased soldier, is applicable only in the case of war. The ceiling of Rs 10 lakh on what a solider8217;s family can get from all government sources, both central and state, was yet another outdated stipulation that had to go.

While some of these anomalies have been removed, there is need for a thorough review of all the relevant rules and regulations. For instance, the distinction between a war situation and other military operations should immediately be dispensed with. The family of a soldier who dies fighting insurgents in Arunachal Pradesh suffers as much as that of one who is killed by intruders in Kargil. Because of this differentiation, the families of those killed in IPKF operations in Sri Lanka in the eighties were denied certain benefits which should have otherwise gone to them.

It is doubtful whether the new packagewould have materialised but for the patriotic fervour generated by the sight of bodybags arriving in various states. It can only be hoped that the competitive spirit with which states have been announcing ex-gratia compensation and other benefits for those who have laid down their lives in Kargil will endure. Even so, it is no substitute for a proper institutionalised system of welfare.

The objective of such a system is to ensure that under no circumstances should a soldier fighting on the border or tackling insurgents have any misgivings about the welfare of his family in case he dies in the operation.

Rules governing disability pension are so rigid that ex-servicemen8217;s organisations fear that some of the current disabled soldiers may even be deprived of it. Many states have announced liberal allotment of land, houses and jobs for the dependents of the Kargil heroes but there is an apprehension that once the operations end, bureaucratic dilly-dallying would prevent them from availing of the benefits. Whyblame the states when the track record of the central government too has not been one that inspires confidence, as is evident in the abject failure to implement the one-rank-one-pension scheme announced by four prime ministers over 20 years?