I'm a disabled veteran. Injured paramilitary jawans like me need care and support
Armed conflicts involving our central paramilitary, the police forces and the casualties that follow these operations are duly highlighted by media. However, our interest in such incident ends once peace is restored. Every conflict has its set of casualties.
The fighting fit soldiers bear the brunt of disgruntled elements, terrorists and Maoists, put themselves on the firing line to make the country safe and maintain social order. Unfortunately, they end up becoming casualties of uncanny incidents.
It is observed since some years that due to civil unrest, rioting, terrorism and Maoism, the paramilitary forces and the police are literally at war at one place or another. In Asansol, DCP Arindam Dutta Chowdhury lost his right hand in a deadly blast. Such conflict zone casualties occur on a regular basis for the forces.
Captain Manoj Singh Tomar is the lone survivor of the July 2014 Maoist attack, in which 17 security personnel were killed. Tomar survived even after getting riddled with 7 bullets. He was airlifted to Raipur where doctors pulled off a miracle by saving his life. However, his serious battlefield wounds required prolonged specialised treatment.
Four years have passed, he has not recovered from his injuries, has partially lost vision and a portion of his intestines remains outside his stomach, in an external pouch. The injury has taken unusually long to heal. If the government hospital in Gwalior was not good enough to treat such serious wounds, captain Tomar should have been shifted to a suitable empanelled hospital with the expertise to deal with his case.
Injured personnel of the paramilitary forces in need of specialised treatment are referred to Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) empanelled hospitals where they become victims of the usual apathy of the government and private doctors.
A wounded soldier needs constant care and affection. Instead he is caught in red-tapism of CGHS scheme. The government hospitals involved are always short of beds, therefore, they want to discharge patients quickly. In case of CGHS empanelled private hospitals, issues like overbilling results in irregular payment from the CGHS. The impacts range from rejection of referral to incomplete treatment and impromptu discharge of the patient- soldier.
An individual serving in the lower rungs of the forces and incapacitated due to battlefield wounds is not physically and mentally capable to fight injustice and indifference arising out of medical negligence.
Manoj Singh Tomar's story grabbed the headlines for good. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan took cognisance of the matter and arranged for the wounded soldier to be treated at AIIMS, New Delhi. When this veteran spoke to Tomar on March 26, he said, "I am being airlifted to the AIIMS, New Delhi for operation."
As a disabled veteran myself, I am looking to suggest a permanent solution to issues pertaining to treatment of battle wounded paramilitary soldiers.
What are the solutions?
All hospitals in India should be ordered to provide the best available treatment to the casualties of the forces. Any highhandedness or negligence while extending medical care to the wounded soldiers must be treated with harsh punishment, which should include action against both the doctor and the hospital.
In Tomar's case, the onus should also be put on the high-command of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the commanding officer, the divisional officer, the duty officer and the mates for whom he fought valiantly and got fatally wounded while losing 17 colleagues. The forces have wilfully forgotten one of their own when he needed them the most. If the forces failed to follow up on his medical care, then to blame the government for the apathy he faced seems totally unjust.
Let us not look into the rehabilitation of CRPF commandant Chetan Cheeta and compare it with the treatment of Tomar. Chocked voices and official apathy towards paramilitary jawans is not unheard of.
How the tri-services treat its wounded soldiers?
When a soldier gets injured in the line of duty, a service ambulance, available 24x7, shifts him immediately to the nearest field hospital where he is provided emergency care. If the injury is serious and necessitates further evaluation and treatment, the soldier is referred and shifted to the command hospital.
While in the hospital for rehabilitation and treatment post operation, he is visited by the commanding officer of his unit, who takes special care to meet the attending doctor to understand what care the soldier needs.
Respective duty officers and junior commissioned officers of the unit followed by unit mates keep visiting him every week. The tri-services do not abandon their wounded but caring for them until they totally recover.
The ones in need of constant medical care are kept admitted in the military hospitals and occasionally sent on sick leave with attendants so that they can spend time with their families.
Apart from the medical team of the hospital, the injured jawan's treatment and rehabilitation are also personally monitored by the regiment's officers and junior commissioned officers who keep the commanding officer abreast about the latest improvements.
The jawans and officers of the three armed forces enjoy very strong bonding between them which is strengthened by the famous regimental system of the Indian Army and divisional system of the Indian Navy. The three forces have traditionally taken utmost care and provided deep affection to their injured troops, never leaving them to fend for themselves in the hour of crisis.
The regimental system is the primary system of bonding for combat and creates an extended family system. It gives all soldiers an identity and a deep sense of belonging. It forges the bonds of camaraderie and trust that see the soldier through the stress and trauma of combat. It is an amazing system for combat motivation and bonding. The system has stood the test of repeated wars and conflicts.
The initiation of a person into the way of life of the Army takes place at the regimental centre. Here the tough initial training and traditions of the regiment are handed down to the next generation of soldiers creating a strong and unshakeable life-long bond. Twenty or more years later, the same battle-hardened soldier returns to his alma mater; the regimental centre, to hang up his uniform and go home. But the relationship endures much beyond, not only lasting a lifetime but often spanning many generations.
The officers placed in high echelons of the central and state paramilitary forces and police forces must raise their own regimental system to add the humane touch to the already tense service environment.
During the last six years, about 700 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces have committed suicide. It is high time for the senior officials to take the welfare of their wounded and families of the fallen ones' in their own hands.
The paramilitary and police forces can implement, strengthen and make the regimental system relevant to their own needs. The regimental system has remained as the bedrock of the Army's organisational structure which has stood the test of numerous bloody battles and years of peacetime over many decades. It symbolises the heart, soul and perhaps the very spirit of the Indian Army.
Soldiers may don the uniforms for pay, but it is not for the pay alone that they win the gallantry awards.