A visit to the Veterans' office: "The army is committed to its veterans"

The Veterans’ Sewa Kendra gives visitors a welcoming feeling 

We have about 26,00,000 military pensioners and another 700,000 widows,  according to figures tabled in Parliament in December 2023.

Once a soldier hangs up his boots, he encounters an environment with which he is not at all familiar. He doesn’t find himself comfortable visiting the government offices functioning from tiny windowless offices with employees, hardly able to find tables and chairs from which they can work. Thus, it comes as a pleasant surprise when one enters the light, airy office of the Director of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV) in Delhi Cantonment.

 

The NAMAN complex near the gate and the Veterans’ Sewa Kendra (VSK) across a green, lush, manicured lawn, gives visitors a welcoming feeling feels like than an oasis in the desert. These provide refuge, relief, and offer a pleasant contrast to most government offices.

Entering the complex, one fiinds Colonel Somvir Mundalia, a retired officer, rising from his chair to greet visitors. A trim, fit, former infantryman, Mundalia has spent almost a decade working for ex-servicemen and trying to get them their legitimate dues. The entire DIAV staff will be seen working with compassion and a sense of assurance, making even complex problems look simple. The lady employees are even more sincere in their efforts to reach-out to the veterans and family pensioners.

The Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV) was raised on 14 Jan 2016 at Delhi Cantt to look after the needs and to meet the aspirations of the military veteran’s fraternity spread across the sprawling geographical expanse of our country. It is mandated to provide “single window welfare and grievances redress mechanism” for all army veterans, widows and next of kin (NoK) by continually interacting with stakeholders in the veterans’ affairs ecosystem.

The stakeholders include the MoD (DESW), DGR,CGDA, PCDAs, banks, state governments, line directorates, skilling agencies and placement partners across the country. The raising of DIAV has, thus, strengthened the hands of the veteran community for resolving grievances in a timely manner. 

DIAV consist of four main sections : Policy & Outreach, Pension & Entitlement, Rehabilitation & Welfare and Skilling & Transition. To ensure outreach to maximum veterans, including in remote areas, the DIAV Veterans Vertical has been established with 30 Colonel Veterans – one each at every Area and Sub Area HQ and five Dir Veterans one each at five Command HQ less HQ Northern Command and ARTRAC. 

In addition, there are 226 Station ESM Cells – one at each military station, thus meeting the long-term aspiration of veterans for having a dedicated office for grievance redress and welfare.

Recent Initiatives

Veerangana and Veterans Sewa Kendra (VSK+)  were operationalized on 10 Nov 2022 as a technology enabled, CRM based, single window welfare, info-dissemination, query-response and grievance redress facility at DIAV. 

This online platform has synergized all key stakeholders for expeditious resolution of grievances with regular updates to the applicant via SMS providing much needed transparency. The facility has now been extended to all Army Veterans thus becoming VSK+.

The project NAMAN has recently been initiated in 10 military stations providing facilities related to banking and government documentation to include Aadhar and PAN Cards. Its popularity and an assurance to meet the aspirations of the veterans fraternity, this will be extended to 200 more stations.

Most ex-servicepersons who come to DIAV have, by the time they reach here, been tossed around several government offices and departments. It is, therefore, such a relief to run into someone from one’s own “biradari” (community), and that too someone so overwhelmingly positive.

 

My experience at DIAV was that it  is a “one stop shop” and Colonel Mundalia ensures that it remains so. I had gone there with the single aim of including my younger daughter into my personal records. Assuring me that it would be done expeditiously, he quickly discovered several other shortcomings in my records. Without loss of any time, and without assembling a group of clerical staff members, he scrutinised my records on his desktop computer and told me what exactly I needed to do.

The creation of DIAV has proved to be a very sensible step towards looking after the veterans fraternity.

I am sure, many of the Veterans who have visited DIAV would have had similar experiences. Those who haven’t been there yet, may like to try it out