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 …