Women’s role in troops’ welfare

EACH of the three Services has an organisation to be run mainly by officers’ wives to look into the problems of servicemen and their families. These organisations are the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), the Naval Wives Welfare Association (NWWA), and the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (AFWWA). Each of these is a private, registered body, with a charter which spells out the need to ensure the welfare of the troops and their families.

The funds are provided mainly from within the units and are supplemented by a small proportion of canteen profits as well as those that are self-generated by these organisations in the form of fetes or fund collection drives and so on.

The activities include the establishment of institutions for the education of children, particularly those of the jawans upto the primary level, and, if possible, upto higher grades. In addition, they take interest in the rehabilitation of retarded and handicapped children. Towards that end the AWWA is running a series of ASHA institutions all over the country, at specific centres, where these children are taught to be self-sufficient. They are also given education upto at least the 3 R capability. In addition, at the unit level, these activities include education of the wives of the jawans and also to help them integrate socially into the unit family.

At major centres these organisations are also running vocational centres, where the jawans’ wives as well as children are taught various skills to enable them to stand on their own feet with confidence. However, unfortunately, the full potential of this very noble activity has not been realised. There is a tendency among the women, the officers’ wives, particularly the senior officers’ wives, not to get fully and personally involved. The tendency is to avoid responsibility and yet be ever ready to accept accolades and thereafter expect the units and formations to do the needful.

For example, in the recent Kargil operations there have been over 200 widows. This writer has his own doubts if even one of these widows had been approached by any senior functionary of the AWWA or the AFWWA. It is all very well for a few “red tabs” to be present at the funeral. But the personal touch and woman-to-woman rapport is completely missing. Nor has there been any effort by these organisations to educate the women particularly the uneducated jawans’ wives, on the following subjects:

(a) Their full entitlements.

(b) How to utilise this amount optimally to ensure a life-time income as well as to generate savings for the settlement of children.

(c) To educate and guide these women on setting up viable establishments which would not only keep them gainfully employed but also get an additional income, which might make them more acceptable for remarriage. In this connection, a mere presentation of a sewing machine is not enough.

(d) Help them face the rapacious relatives, who would be eyeing their wealth as well as their bodies.

(e) To ensure that the widows really and actually to get their full entitlements.

(f) Regular follow-up visits to look into their problems.

(g) Co-opting the civilian establishment to provide the requisite help.

To say that the widows of the troops are a national problem is to beg the issue. Each organisation has its own role to play. It is this that is lacking today in the Services and particularly the wives’ associations.

Lt Col Thakur K.S. Ludra (retd)
Chandigarh

Lt Saurabh Kalia

It is less than four months when Lt Saurabh Kalia and his team committed the supreme sacrifice in defence of their motherland on the inhospitable terrain of Kargil.

After the truth came to light that they were severely tortured before being brutally killed, and that the Pakistani army sent these mutilated bodies to India on the eve of Mr Sartaj Aziz’s visit, the whole nation was filled with revulsion. There was an outcry from the government and the people alike, and it was thought that India would follow this gross breach of the Geneva convention till Pakistan stood with its head bowed in shame before the world community.

But today our government has forgotten the whole episode. Not a word has been spoken and no action has been taken on this terrible tragedy.

We, the people of India, will not allow the government to drive Saurabh Kalia’s memory to oblivion. We will go on reminding the government to act.

The annual session of the General Assembly of the United Nations is to commence shortly. Pakistan is likely to raise the Kashmir issue. At least at that time the Indian representative can take up in detail the brutal torture and murder of Saurabh Kalia and his men. The Indian government should also demand huge compensation from Pakistan for the dead heroes whose suffering at the time of death was unimaginable.

P.K. DUTTA
Jalandhar