A post is being shared on social media claiming that the Narendra Modi government opened a dedicated bank account to accept donations for the welfare of the families of soldiers who got injured or martyred during the battle casualties. According to the post, any Indian citizen can donate any amount to the ‘Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund’ (AFBCWF) bank account to financially assist the families of soldiers. The post says the donations will also be used to buy weapons for the army and paramilitary forces. The post provides the bank account details and says that the donated money will be directly deposited in the Defence Ministry’s Army Assistance and War Casualty Fund. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: The donations contributed to the AFBCWF bank account of the Indian Army will be utilized to purchase weapons for the army and paramilitary forces.
Fact: The donations contributed to AFBCWF, run by the Indian Army for the Ministry of Defence, are utilized to pay financial assistance or grant to the families of soldiers who were injured or died during military operations. AFBCWF funds are not spent on purchasing arms for the Indian Army. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
When we searched for the details of the AFBCWF bank account mentioned in the post, we found the details of the dedicated bank account on the official website of the Indian Army. The description provided on the website states, “Indian Army, on behalf of Govt of India/Ministry of Defence is maintaining an account named Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund, which accepts donations for families of battle casualties from Army, Navy and Air Force. The donations received in the fund are utilized to pay financial assistance to Battle Casualties of Army, Navy and Air Force, their next of kins (NoK) and dependents.” It is nowhere mentioned that the donations contributed to the bank account are utilized to purchase military equipment for the army or paramilitary forces.
Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information issued a clarification regarding this viral post circulating on social media. Indian Army through a tweet confirmed these rumours as false and said, “Reports in social media on donations to Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund for purchase of weapons and equipment are not true. It is clarified that the subject fund was opened in response to the desire of spirited citizens to contribute to the welfare of battle casualties/ their Next of Kin and is being utilised solely for that purpose.”
The Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund was set up under the Ex-Servicemen Welfare (ESW) of the Ministry of Defence after a large number of people came forward to assist the families of war casualties following the February 2016 incident in Siachen.
The fund was created under the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890. A Bank Account bearing No. 90552010165915 was opened in the South Block Branch of Syndicate Bank, New Delhi for the public to deposit money. This fund is in addition to the various existing schemes for the welfare of NoK and children of battle casualties in the form of additional ex gratia. The Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund was also mentioned when a question was asked in Parliament about any help being provided to the families of the deceased armed forces. But the government has nowhere said that this fund is used for purchasing weapon equipment or for any other purpose.
Similar misleading posts are circulating on social media related to the Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties (AWFBC). These posts claim that the Indian government has opened this dedicated bank account after a suggestion from Akshay Kumar. Indian Army issued a clarification regarding those misleading posts in September 2016, stating- “The donations received in the fund will be utilized to pay financial assistance/grant to widows of the Battle casualties, their next of kin and dependents.”
To sum it up, the donations contributed to the Army Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund (AFBCWF) are not utilized for buying weapons for army and paramilitary forces.
