Karamjit Kaur too lost her husband, Roop Singh, a Petty Officer in the Indian Navy in the 1971 war. He was aboard the Kookri ship which drowned that fateful December.

Roop Singh, who had served the Navy for nine years, died along with 229 other soldiers. Of the 315 people on board, only 86 survived. Karamjit never saw the body of her husband. Her son was only four.

“I had no financial support from anyone. My husband’s parents were already dead. All I got was Rs 250 per month as pension from the Army. The one security I had was a seven marla house in Sector 35. That saw me through,” says Karamjit.

Not being very well-educated, she could not get a job. But that did not stop her. She learnt stitching and financed her son’s education. Today, a civil engineer from Punjab Engineering College, he is working in a company at Baddi.

Appreciating the construction of the Chandigarh War Memorial, she said such an initiative was necessary. It would give recognition to the martyrs. The attitude of the government, she says, has been apathetic. She received no help of any sort from the government.

No compensation was awarded at that time. Whatever she received in terms of compensation was after the Kargil conflict.