Lecturette Series: One Rank One Pension

Critical analysis of One Rank One Pension (O.R.O.P.)

 "Pension is not a bounty nor a matter of grace depending upon the sweet will of the employer. It is not an ex-gratia payment, but a payment for past services rendered". A pension refers to a sum which is to be paid regularly to a person, typically following retirement from service

So basically what OROP means that a Armed Forces personnel holding the same rank deserves to receive the same pension, regardless of the last drawn pay, years of service and the years served in a particular rank , or, it simply means equal pension for those who retired in a particular year ,while holding same position/rank as to those who retired in some other year. So for example, if a sepoy who retired in 1995 should be paid the same amount of pension as the one who retired later.

However this has not been the case so long. With every pay commission that comes up , it increases the salary of the present government services , but the pensions of the ex-servicemen remains unaffected . Thus, the gap between past pensioners and the present servicemen with same position keeps widening with every pay commission. For example a sepoy who retired prior to 1996 receives 82% less pension with respect to a sepoy who retires after 2006 Or a major who retired prior to 1996 receives 53% less pension with respect to a Major who retires after 2006 even though both the sepoy and the major put their lives equally at stake to guard this country .

• Had their sacrifices been less than the sacrifices made by soldiers who are retiring today? 
• Was their life less important than the one's retiring or serving today?
•  Were they lesser citizens of Mother India than the one's retiring today?
• Were their families lesser citizens of Mother India than the families of the one’s are retiring today? 
• Did those soldiers and heroes faced softer bullets than the one's facing today?
• Did they live in better conditions than the one's living today? 
• Did they serve Mother India less than the one's serving today?

If the answer to the above is NO, then why their pension is not the same as the ones retiring today.

They sacrificed their best years for the armed forces. Yet, generations of soldiers, sailors and airmen are still battling for a fair pension. Some, after a lifetime of loyalty, have to retire to a life of poverty.

Hawaldar Bagh Singh fought in the Bangladesh war. He kept firing at the enemy even after taking 12 bullets in his legs and won a Sena Medal. Later, he served on the Rajasthan border and in the northeast, and retired in 1989.

Today, Bagh makes do with a meager pension of Rs 4,500. On March '14, after years of pleas for a better pension, he packed his medal in a polythene bag and mailed it to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the place where he was so memorably decorated. At age 65, Bagh works his land to support his family. It is painful to return the medal. But medals can't earn you a living. It is a disgrace that after all those years of service and sacrifice we have been denied decent pension," Hawaldar Bagh says. Till now, nearly 15,000 medals have been returned to the President .

Till the 60s, faujis got 65 percent of last pay because most had to retire in their late 40s/early 50s while civilians got 33 percent since all served up to 58 years. The 3rd PC abolished Military Pensions, reduced it to 50 percent, increased civil pensions to 50 percent, and added that in order to earn full pension a govt. servant must serve for 33 years. But unlike other government servants, who retire at the age of 60, most soldiers are relieved in their late 30s or early 40s to keep the forces young. Thus most military men hardly ever received full pension because very few could serve for 33 years, but the civil servants invariably got full pension because they served till the age of 58, getting them at least 33 years of service

India has the third largest defense system in the world , highly renowned and feared. So why is the Government so insensitive towards the rights of our Faujis. Is it the utter disregard & disinterest towards the Faujis. These so called upper classes, elite, bureaucrats/technocrats/business entrepreneurs/rich professionals couldn’t care less about what the faujis do, what they get, how they manage their affairs and such tiresome issues. When they are safe, secure and successful, the fauj is irrelevant.

 Although the Indian Government accepted the demand of OROP in 2014 but due to some technical calculations and interpretations by the ministry, a deadlock was created over the most basic issue, the very definition of OROP between bureaucrats of the MOD on one side and the uniformed fraternity plus the veterans on the other.

Though implementation of the scheme has been delayed by approximately year now , we hope the Government would deliver One Rank One Pension Scheme by mid-2015 as it would be a great relief for our 23 lakh ex-servicemen who have been demanding for O.R.O.P. for last four years. The views expressed reveal what i feel and i would like to hear what my fellow colleagues feel on the same in the comment section.

About the Author : Adhiraj Singh Jhala is a Computer Science final year student at VIT and a die heart defense aspirant. He loves adventure sports and playing football. Photography is his passion and loves to serve society by working for NGO . This article is a way to help defense aspirants to present his critical views on the topic, on the forum so that collective exchange of thoughts can take place. (Edited and reviewed by Jayendra Pratap Singh)