New year of hope for disabled military cadets: A new health cover that cuts costs

Last month, Shubham Gupta got a “temporary slip” confirming his entry into the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS), which offers treatment free of cost at military facilities or empanelled hospitals. For Kartik Sharma, the slip has already meant Rs 10,000 less in monthly medical bills. Vickrant Raj and Kishan Kulakarni have also got these slips. Soon, they said, the slip will be replaced by the official ECHS card.

These youngsters are among the around 500 officer cadets who have been medically discharged from the country’s premier military institutes since 1985, due to varying degrees of disability incurred during training. For years, they were left staring at mounting medical bills with an ex-gratia monthly payment that was far short of what they needed. But finally, this new year heralds hope.

In August 2025, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of their struggle following a series of reports published in The Indian Express on how these cadets were battling severe disability with shattered dreams and poor benefits. Days later, the Ministry of Defence issued an order extending ECHS facilities to them.

After years of despair, the needle is moving, these cadets and their families told this newspaper. At the same time, they said, they will continue their larger battle for disability pension and ex-serviceman status — a matter that the Supreme Court is hearing.

“I got my slip for the ECHS card in the first week of November,” said Shubham (33), who suffered a cervical spinal injury with quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs and torso) during his training at NDA in 2014. “Right now, I am doing fine. But ECHS will be a big help if and when I need to visit a neurologist for any further treatment,” he said.

Launched in its current form in 2003, ECHS provides allopathic and AYUSH medicare to ex-servicemen pensioners and their dependents  through a network of polyclinics, service medical facilities, Government hospitals, empanelled private hospitals and specified Government AYUSH hospitals across the country. Financed by the Centre, the scheme ensures cashless transactions for patients.

According to the Defence Ministry, the contributory component — a one-time payment of upto Rs 1.2 lakh for officers on retirement — has been waived off for the disabled cadets.

The scheme entitles beneficiaries to free treatment with no monetary ceiling at military and empanelled hospitals with no bar on age or medical condition; reimbursement at Central Government Health Scheme rates in case of emergency treatment in a non-empanelled facility; indoor/ outdoor services, tests and medicines; and, includes spouse and all eligible dependents.

Until the Supreme Court stepped in (see box), the cadets disabled during military training were not covered under the ECHS scheme. They still do not get a disability pension, which those who are inducted into the armed forces are entitled to, and do not hold ex-serviceman status.

Kartik (27), who suffered from a spinal cord injury with quadriplegia during his NDA training in 2021, said his family had to spend about Rs 40,000 monthly on medical expenses. “This has come down by about Rs 10,000 after I got ECHS facilities. Some of my medicines are not available currently at empanelled facilities, but we were told that they will soon be. Once that happens, the medical expenses will go down further,” he said.

The families of Kishan (25) and Vickrant (26), who are also former NDA cadets who got medically discharged during training, said their inclusion in ECHS has come as a huge relief.

Shubham Gupta at his home in Bathinda, Punjab, on New Year’s Eve

Kishan’s mother Bharati, a former school teacher, said that she spends Rs 13,200 every month on his medicines and daily injections. “We recently received the ECHS slip… I had brought his medicines in bulk last time but now, our expenditure on his medicines will go down,” she said.

Kishan suffered a cardiac arrest and HIE (caused by oxygen and blood deprivation in brain) during training and has been bedridden over the past five years due to degeneration of nerves in his brain. His mother is his sole caregiver.

In the case of Vickrant, The Indian Express had reported in August that his monthly medical bill was approximately Rs 95,000 while the ex-gratia amount he received every month was only Rs 40,000. “He received his ENHS slip last week. The ECHS cover will significantly bring down his medical expenses,” his mother Suman, the daughter of an ex-IAF officer, said.

Ankur Chaturvedi, a former NDA cadet who has been fighting for the rights of these cadets, said that since the Defence Ministry’s order was issued in August, “about 65 disabled officer cadets have applied for ECHS cards, of which around 41 have been verified”. He said that “around 39 temporary slips for ECHS have been issued since then”.

The Defence Ministry did not respond to a questionnaire from The Indian Express seeking details on the progress made in this matter.

Since August, five hearings have taken place in the Supreme Court, with the next scheduled on January 20, 2026. The court has appointed an amicus curiae, who has already submitted a report with several recommendations: The court directed the Government to ensure that these suggestions are examined by the Service Headquarters and recommendations sent to the Defence Ministry. It directed that the ministries of Defence and Finance should jointly consider the recommendations from the Service HQ and respond to the court.

The Indian Express has learnt that the report has been sent to the three services and all of them have responded positively. “I hope that with the Amicus’ submissions and positive concurrence of the Service Headquarters (to them), the core issue of disability pension and long-term livelihood protection will be resolved soon,” said Chaturvedi.