Injured cadets battle for support decades after leaving military academies
Hubballi’s Kishan among them
New Delhi: Around 500 officer cadets have been discharged from India’s premier military academies since 1985 after sustaining serious training injuries, yet many continue to be denied the recognition and support granted to soldiers hurt in similar circumstances.
In the past five years alone, about 20 cadets from the National Defence Academy were forced to leave after accidents that cut short their training, as reported by The Indian Express.
Former cadet, Vickrant Raj from Chandigarh, now speaks slowly and struggles with coordination after a brain injury. He was injured in 2016 during physical training at the NDA. He is now partial paralysed and his monthly medical bills amounts to ₹95,000.
Discharged in 2021, Shubham Gupta from Bhatinda, Punjab was left paralysed after a diving accident and now requires constant care. "In April 2012, when I was in my fourth term, I suffered a spinal cord injury while taking a deep dive in the pool. I barely survived but the impact fractured my neck. It left me paralysed from neck down. I had to undergo eight surgeries and was kept on ventilator for two months,” IE quoted Gupta as saying.
Kishan, who is from Hubballi, Karnataka was injured in 2020. He lives with 90 percent nerve damage following a cardiac arrest during training. He is now bedridden for the last five years. Kishan’s mother stated, “Doctors have said the nerves in his brain have degenerated due to lack of oxygen, and they may not regenerate again."
Kartik Sharma, injured at the Indian Military Academy, spent 16 months in rehabilitation after a spinal injury. He turned to academics while undergoing rehabilitation. Harish Sinhmar, from Rohtak, Haryana spent decades coping with the effects of a head injury and faced memory loss with depression. He was discharged in 2004 after a leg injury. He spent two decades seeking adequate financial and medical support.
Families say the lack of ESM status not only denies them access to affordable military hospitals but also excludes them from welfare schemes and job reservations available to other veterans. “They trained to serve the country. Now they are left to fight their battles alone,” said the father of one injured cadet.
Many of the parents who had once hoped to see their children serve as officers now manage their care. Some describe the daily challenges of lifting, feeding, and transporting their sons for treatment, while also navigating administrative hurdles to secure delayed payments.
Under current policy, these cadets are not classified as ex-servicemen because they were injured before commissioning. They cannot access military medical facilities or the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme without that status. They instead, receive a one-time compensation or an ex gratia of up to ₹40,000 a month, an amount that families say is far below what is needed for long-term care. Many face medical costs between ₹40,000 and ₹1,00,000 every month, forcing relatives to either leave thier jobs to care for them or seek treatment in private hospitals.
Despite a proposal to increase the ex gratia and expand benefits receiving ministerial approval, the matter has remained pending for more than a year.
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Man arrested for for raping mute woman in Jamshedpur
Jamshedpur (PTI): One person was arrested on the charge of raping a 30-year-old woman with speech impairment in Jamshedpur, a police officer said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred in the Azadnagar police station area of the city, and a case in this regard was registered based on the statement of the victim's brother on Monday.
The victim had gone to fetch water from the premises of a company on Monday evening. When she did not return even after a considerable time, family members went out in search of her and caught the accused red-handed, police said.
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The accused was a caretaker of the company.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (Patamda) Bachandeo Kujjur said due to scarcity of water in the area, the victim used to fetch water from the premises of the company.
