Army to focus on injured soldiers

New Delhi: With all future wars expected to be short, swift and intense, there is growing demand on the military to maintain and adhere to standards of supreme medical standards. The week-long Army Commanders’ Conference which will begin in the national capital from next Monday will look at ways on how to best manage the services of about 91,000 to 1,30,000 officers and jawans who are not capable of performing all kinds of soldierly activity due to medical reasons.

These Army personnel, said to belong to the Low Medical Category (LMC), are soldiers who may have injured themselves while in service resulting in temporary or permanent disabilities or those who suffer from medical conditions including life style diseases like hypertension and diabetes which render them unfit to serve in high altitude and operational areas like Siachen or counter-insurgency operations in the Kashmir valley or in the Northeast for instance. LMC personnel usually comprise between 7-10 per cent of the total strength of any formation.

Management of LMC personnel becomes all the more crucial in the light of the fact that the 13 lakh strong Indian Army suffers from a shortage of about 7,600 officers and about 20,000 jawans. A serving Army officer told this newspaper on condition of anonymity: “At any given point of time, when a certain unit is asked to move to high altitude areas or to sensitive locations from a peace location, posting the LMC personnel to other locations or engaging them in sedentary duties often becomes a challenge.”

Every year, every person in the Indian Army has to undergo a mandatory medical examination the results of which are confidential.

Among other medical issues in the agenda of the Army’s top brass meet are medical cover for dependents of serving personnel at empanelled private hospitals, broad banding of disability, financial sustenance issues of the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme, elevation of status of directorate general of dental services to an independent directorate etc. The Army Commanders Conference is an important event in the planning and execution process of Indian Army that undertakes a 360 degree look at the current emerging perspectives on issues relating to operations, logistics, administration, human resources and welfare. To ensure due diligence, decisions are taken through collegiate system comprising army commanders and senior officers. Besides being addressed by the defence minister and presided over by the Army Chief, the conference is attended by top commanders.