59,190 armed forces personnel granted disability pension since 2016: Govt

The government on Friday said it has granted disability pension to 59,190 armed forces personnel since 2016. Armed forces personnel "invalidated" out of service on account of bodily disability sustained during service are eligible for disability pension.

According to details provided by Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt in Lok Sabha, 6,851 personnel were granted disability pension in 2016, while the number went up to 10,554 in 2017 and 12,321 in 2018.

Bhatt was responding to a question on the issue.


A total of 12,971 personnel were extended the pension in 2019, 12,149 in 2020 and 4,344 in the current year.

The minister said the cases of disability and service pension are processed within the timeframe as per laid down policy.

"As per extant policy, service personnel who is invalided out from service on account of disability which is attributable to or aggravated by military service is granted a disability pension," he said in his written reply.

Bhatt said before January 4, 2019, a minimum of 10 years of qualifying service was required to be eligible for the pension.

"Before January 4, 2019, minimum 10 years of qualifying service was required for eligibility of invalid pension to service personnel invalided out of service on account of disability which is Neither Attributable to Nor Aggravated (NANA) by military service," he said.

"Now, the requirement of 10 years qualifying service has been done away with, with effect from January 4, 2019," he added.

To a separate question, he said there is no official information that India is one of the top importers of military hardware globally since no country officially reveals information on their import of defence equipment.