Retired Officers Serving a Noble Cause

Over the past 60 years of Independence, India has fought five major battles and survived numerous skirmishes to keep its borders intact and free of insurgents. The experiences of 1948, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1999 all have shown that the armed forces of India are our first and last line of defence against any enemy.

They have consistently proven their mettle since the First World War, when they fought with the British forces, as well as in recent wars and whenever the UN requested for assistance from the Indian government. The long list of medals, gallantry awards, VCs, PVSM, AVSM, VSM etc. underline this courage and leadership.

But the gallantry awards and victories did not come without a price. The armed forces of India have had to face human losses in battle, soldiers missing in action and wounded soldiers – those who could never go back to the forces again. These wounded were part of the fighting team, till injury separated them from the forces, leaving many of them to face their future alone.

Recently, veteran cricketer Kapil Dev agreed to be the goodwill ambassador of War Wounded Foundation. On August 15, 2004, he relaunched the book Paramveer - Our Heroes In Battle by Major General Ian Cardozo.

There are over 30,000 disabled soldiers in our country without proper rehabilitation. War Wounded Foundation is the only NGO working towards this cause. Founded by Lt. Gen (Retd) Vijay Oberoi and Maj. Gen Ian Cardozo, both of whom are war-disabled, the foundation has been able to make significant advances despite paucity of funds.

They have come up with a small website about these unsung war heroes. Donations to the War Wounded Foundation are exempt from tax under Sec. 80 G of income tax act. Corporates which are already contributors to the War Wounded Foundation include Apollo Tyres, IOC, MICO, Kinetic, Pepsi, Piaggio, Ambuja Cement and Hindustan Lever.

Website: http://www.warwounded.org/

The people behind this organisation.

Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi (Retd), PVSM, AVSM, VSM, President of this organisation. He lost his leg in a 1965 skirmish with the Pakistani infiltrators. An officer of Maratha Light Infantry, he continued to serve in the army for 40 years, retiring from the post of Vice Chief of the Indian Army. He was selected as the International Fellow from India at the US Army War College. He continues to be active in intellectual/ Social work.

Maj Gen Ian Cardozo (Retd), AVSM, SM; Vice President of this organisation. An officer of the 5th Gorkha Rifles, he lost his leg as a Major in the war of 1971. He became the first war-disabled officer to Command a Battalion and a Brigade and retired as Chief of Staff of a Corps in the eastern sector. He is now a social activist, an author and a military historian.

Mr. Mukesh Anand, is the Executive Director of this organisation. Son of an Army officer, he devoted himself to serving the cause of retired/ disabled soldiers after the Kargil war. He has been instrumental in rehabilitating a large number of retired/ disabled soldiers.

HARPREET KAUR
War Wounded Foundation, 2 Balbir Saxena Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi
Credit: http://www.dancewithshadows.com/society/war-wounded-foundation1.asp

Ex Servicemen Hothouse of Talent

Highlights of Seminar on Defence Industry Partnership in Human Resource Management held in Chennai on 11 Jul 2007.

Mr Sajjan Jindal of the OP Jindal group, said, he had recently offered to take the entire 60,000 retiring people into employment.

Brig (Retd) T.M. Sridharan, CEO & Board Member, Hinduja group, noted that ex-servicemen were “excellent, trained, human resource”. He said that the Government spent close to Rs 15 lakh in training a recruit “before he fires his first bullet”.

Brig Sridharan said (and other speakers agreed) that the ex-servicemen, not being too young, tend to stick to a job and hence help check attrition. Wing Commander (Retd) T.R. Shankaran, Consultant, Training, Reliance Retail, stressed that there were a number of jobs that ex-servicemen could fit into, with a little re-orientation. For example, people trained in logistics could fit in supply chain management functions. Those who have worked in army intelligence and military police would fit in fraud detection. Above all, ex-servicemen, having dealt with people “24x365”, made excellent HR professionals, he said.

Two other speakers, Mr K. Ganesan, Global Head, Learning & Development and M&A, TCS, and Mr S. Ganguly, General Manager (Pers & HR) L&T, agreed that ex-servicemen were “excellent HR people”.

All speakers stressed on the need for re-orientation. Mr Ganguly said that ex-servicemen needed to be more cost-conscious in the industry. Mr Ganesan noted that they could face a culture-shock in flat organisations, where rank was no material. He offered that TCS could take ex-servicemen on paid internship for about six months without any obligation on the internees to continue.

Welfare of Ex Servicemen

The year 2007 was observed as the Year of Placement of Ex-servicemen and a special drive was undertaken in collaboration with the corporate sector to provide gainful reemployment to ex-servicemen. The UPA Government has in place the following measures as enumerated below.

The Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare has been set up. Dr. Satyanarayana Dash has taken over as the Secretary of the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare very recently.

The anomaly in respect of pension of personnel below officer rank who had retired before 1996 has been rectified and personnel retiring from the lower ranks to also get close to full pension despite short lengths of service, benefiting around 11.85 lakh pensioners.

Procedures for the next-of-kin benefits given to personnel dying in harness have been improved.

A special drive was taken up to clear pension cases. Pension Adalats were held to redress grievances.

The Prime Minister's Merit Scholarship Scheme was been introduced for giving 5,000 scholarships every year to wards of armed forces personnel.

Availing of benefits under the Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme has been made easier and a large number of polyclinics has been set up.

Training of serving and ex-servicemen expanded.

Ministries had been advised to engage only ex-servicemen for outsourced security jobs.

Housing projects have been initiated under Jai Jawan Awas Yojana, with completion of the first project at Jaipur in 2007.

A bill for setting up of an Armed Forces Tribunal has been moved to provide a cheaper and speedier mechanism for adjudicating on the large number of pending court cases relating to service conditions of armed forces personnel and appeal against verdict of court martial.