AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS – PART 5 : FAILING FORCES WIDOWS IS FAILURE OF COMMAND

AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS – PART 5 : FAILING FORCES WIDOWS IS FAILURE OF COMMAND

The Widows and Veterans suffer due to COMMAND FAILURE OF CHIEFS. Armed Forces have one of the most pathetic personal documentation of soldiers.

Under #SAVITA Sustainable And Valuable Initiative for Timely Assistance

Asset of Armed Forces are soldiers, the Rank and File.

• We exploit them.
• We use them.
• We have miserable personal documentation system.
• We DUMP documents on veterans and widows on death/retirement knowing fully well that these will be used only by Kendriya Sainik Board (KSB) and ECHS.
• We do not document taking KSB in confidence.
• We have no say in grants processed by KSB.
• We ignore them in death.
• We pile misery on widows by dumping documents as were recorded by Armed Forces.
• ALL THREE SERVING CHIEFS ARE BOARD MEMBERS IN KENDRIYA SAINIK BOARD. This is Command Failure.

A Small Case Study

Son ‘Rajesh Kumar’ in Army is ‘Rajesh Manhas’ in Aadhaar. A soldier declares that he has got married. The clerk asks him name of wife, date of birth date of marriage and her father’s name. That’s all. No authentication. A ‘Casualty’ or ‘Part II Order is published and sent to concerned records. First child is born. He simply gives a chit to the clerk, son, name ‘Rajesh Kumar’, Date of Birth say, 12-09-2020. ‘Authentication’ simply means a form filled by the concerned.

The clerk gives him nomination form for pension etc. No one briefs him. He fills up say 100% to wife.

Fast forward:

Soldier dies within one year before child is born. Parents in penury. Do not get a single rupee. Girl takes 100% insurance money, full pension, remarries, does not declare to forces and lives with husband a five start life!!

Soldier dies after 10 years’ service. Initial documentation reveals wife’s DoB recorded wrong by husband, her 10^th cert has a different date and Aadhaar has a different date. Son ‘Rajesh Kumar’ in documents is ‘Rajesh Minhas’ on Aadhaar. The Birth Certificate has one date and Part II Order another.

Result? Pension will not commence till resolved. The child will not get benefits till resolved. If documents say ‘Meena Kumari’ and Aadhaar says ‘Meena Sharma’, the Kendriya Sainik Board does not entertain, ECHS does not entertain in fact the widow ‘dies’ a third death (PART 2 – WIDOWS – GO DIE A THIRD DEATH https://colsanjaypande.com/awareness-series-armed-forces-widows-part-2-widows-go-die-a-third-death/ ).

My question to Chiefs.

1. What processes are in place within armed forces to ensure feeding of authentic data in the system that is based on documents as required by civilian to authenticate his?

• Passport cannot be made without 10^th Certificate (for Date of Birth) or actual Birth Certificate (for those born after 1989). Why are forces not adhering to it?

• If Aadhaar Card has gained such wide acceptability, why is it not being made compulsory to be produced before final Part II Order is published?

• Why is there no sync between personal documentation of soldiers as published by armed forces with their own data as held in civil domain?

• Why is there no sync of Armed Forces Record Offices, Pay and Account Offices, ECHS, Kendriya Sainik Boards and Zilla Sainik Boards?

Why Do Widows Suffer? The Widows and Veterans suffer due to COMMAND FAILURE OF CHIEFS.

Poor Leadership.

• Lowest priority and importance is given to personal documentation. Look at the officers heading Record Offices. They are either from Administration or in the army are promote Havaldars or JCOs given commission. Each is trained to ‘sign’. None thinks. They know how to follow rules.
• Units are completely unaware of life of veterans and widows. They have their own jobs to do. Documentation of men is last in priority. There are no processes. Blaming Commanding Officers is incorrect.
• Record Office mails get least attention in units. It is something to be dealt by ‘clerks’.
• Directorate of Veterans are most removed from Veterans and Widows. These are postings to be managed to be nearer home.
• There is no culture, training, process and importance assigned to personal documentation.

Radical Change. Indian Army needs to, for three tenures continuously, or TEN YEARS, post complete Higher Command and HDMC course qualified officers as Officers Commanding Records. These need to be made into important criteria appointment. Post regular officers at all levels and remove the stigma of ‘records’. Today the most looked down upon organisation in the Army is Records Office.

Command Failure

No less than Chiefs are responsible for this failure. It’s a Command Failure.

Dual Strategy

If we need to be change, we need to have a dual strategy.

• 1^st. Seamless integration of data where all users access a common pool.
• 2^nd. Immediate implementation of day to day measures that capture correct data at the ‘feeding end’ i.e. the Training Centres, the place of current posting all while in service.

The three service headquarters need to get involved for the 1^st.

I will put up a format for the second in the PART 6.

COMING UP – AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS : PART 6 – SOLUTION-SUGGESTION

In the AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS, I have so far published following articles:

AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS : PART 1 – WIDOW NOT BY CHOICE https://colsanjaypande.com/awareness-series-armed-forces-widows-part-1-widow-not-by-choice/

AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS : PART 2 – WIDOWS – GO DIE A THIRD DEATH https://colsanjaypande.com/awareness-series-armed-forces-widows-part-2-widows-go-die-a-third-death/

AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS : PART 3 – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS – PART 3 – DISCRIMINATION IN  DEATH

AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS – PART 4 – HOW CAN SERVING FORCES PERSONNEL HELP FORCES WIDOWS?

AWARENESS SERIES – ARMED FORCES WIDOWS – PART 5 : FAILING WIDOWS IS FAILURE OF COMMAND https://colsanjaypande.com/awareness-series-armed-forces-widows-part-5-failing-forces-widows-is-failure-of-command/

Copyright (C) Col Sanjay Pande