No pension for a year for several women officers

NEW DELHI: Several women army officers have not received pension for almost a year after their retirement, even though they became eligible for it following a landmark Supreme Court order in 2020 that was seen as a shot in the arm for gender equality, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Some of the women officers HT spoke to said financial stress had led to anxiety and depression as they were struggling to repay loans and living off their provident funds. The problem has its roots in a new pension disbursing system introduced by the government last year, a government official said, asking not to be named.

At least 15 short-service commission (SSC) women officers, who retired in 2021 after completing 20 years of service, are facing the problem, and many of them have brought it to the attention of the government’s pension disbursing authority multiple times. The minimum service for defence officers to get pension is 20 years.

SSC women officers became eligible for permanent commission (PC) and pension only two years ago after the apex court passed a judgment to close the gender gap in the armed forces. The apex court’s directions on pension were unambiguous.

In the order dated February 17, 2020, the top court said, “SSC women officers with over 20 years of service who are not granted PC shall retire on pension in terms of the (government’s) policy decision.”

Affected women officers, who retired in their 40s as lieutenant colonels, have not been sanctioned pension because their cases were processed under SPARSH, the new online pension disbursing system controlled by the Allahabad-based Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Pensions) or PCDA (P), said a second government official.

Responding to queries sent by HT on Monday on why the women officers were not getting pension and how the matter was being resolved, an official from the office of the Controller General of Defence Accounts said the problem had arisen as the policy on whether the affected women officers were entitled to pension was not clear.

“We had sought a clarification from the defence ministry’s department of ex-servicemen welfare (DESW) on the matter and they have clarified that the SSC women officers are eligible for pension. We are making changes in SPARSH to process their pensions. They will receive their pension for February along with arrears,” the CGDA official said, asking not to be named. PCDA (P) comes under CGDA. The assurance has come even as SSC women officers were weighing legal options.

What is odd is that while a group of SSC women officers have been drawing pension for months after they retired last year, other similarly placed officers have been deprived of the retirement benefit. “I gave the best years of my life to the army. There are financial obligations that I am unable to fulfil. It’s giving me mental stress and depression,” said Lieutenant Colonel Sarita Satija (retd). She served in the Army Ordnance Corps (AOC) for almost 21 years before retiring in April 2021.

Satija and the other women officers are entitled to a monthly pension of around ₹1 lakh.

A letter issued by the Military Secretary’s branch on March 2, 2021, clearly states the SSC women officers from Satija’s course — Women Special Entry Scheme (Officers)-16 — are entitled to pension under the relevant rules. A letter from the department of military affairs, dated July 16, 2020, issued in pursuance of the Supreme Court order had earlier made it clear that SSC women officers with over 20 years of service shall retire with pension.

“My documents for pension were uploaded on the SPARSH portal and I was given a username and password on December 31, 2021, using which I verified my data on January 3, 2022. On January 4, I received a message that my pension has been sanctioned and that I can view my PPO (pension payment order) after 24 hours, but when I generated the PPO, it read ‘Pension not entitled’,” the woman officer wrote to PCDA (P) on January 30. Other women officers also wrote similar letters.

Satija highlighted in her letter that other women officers with the same service profile as hers were receiving pension as their documents were processed manually, while hers went through SPARSH, implying that the system was faulty. “This shows a very selective and biased approach by your department and is tantamount to contempt of Supreme Court order on the subject. In order to avoid further delay in pension, kindly process my pension case manually (legacy system),” she wrote.

SPARSH, or System for Pension Administration (Raksha), was implemented last September to ease different aspects of defence pensions including initiation, sanction, computation, revision and disbursement, but several former servicemen have pointed out that the system is riddled with glitches.

Lieutenant Colonel Anu Randhawa is also feeling the pinch of pension denial.

An AOC officer, she retired around 11 months ago after putting in 20 years in the army. “Many of us have EMIs to pay for loans taken,” she said. “We are facing hardships for no fault of ours. Nobody told us why we are not getting our pension. If the problem was with the new system, it should have been fixed long ago,” Randhawa said.

Retired life started with a jolt for Lieutenant Colonel Achla Singh. She served in the Corps of Engineers for more than two decades before retiring in April 2021. “My plans have gone for a toss. When you know you will get pension, you plan your finances around it,” said Singh.

Lieutenant Colonel Sonali Dudhane’s finances are also a mess. She spent a chunk of her provident fund of ₹40 lakh on a two-bedroom apartment in Nagpur, where she settled down with her septuagenarian and ailing parents after retiring last year.

“I have some provident fund left. But that’s it. It will be hard to get by if pension is delayed further,” said Dudhane, an Army Service Corps (ASC) officer who served the army for more than 22 years.

Lieutenant Colonel Manju Shanwal, another ASC officer who retired after 20 years, said the affected women officers were thinking of seeking legal recourse if the matter was not resolved at the earliest.

“To avoid delay and any legal complications, the claims of eligible women SSC officers whose claims could not be processed through SPARSH may be processed manually,” DESW wrote to CGDA on Tuesday.

According to PCDA (P), the SPARSH comprehensive pension package, an end-to-end online system, seeks to ensure “the right payment to the right pensioner at the right time” through digital processing of the pensions of more than three million defence pensioners.

AT LEAST 15 SHORT-SERVICE COMMISSION (SSC) OFFICERS, WHO RETIRED IN 2021 AFTER 20 YEARS OF SERVICE, ARE FACING THE PROBLEM