AN OVERVIEW OF GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES & FINANCIAL GRANTS TOWARDS WAR WIDOWS IN INDIA: 1999-2019"

India spends notable amount in terms of both and revenue expenditures. The welfare of war widows along with the Ex-servicemen and NOK is a major responsibility Department of Sainik Kalyan Board which comes under Defense Ministry. There is whole integrated system at central, state and district level which works dedicated for wellbeing of these members especially war widows, as they are most vulnerable financially and socially as well. The paper tries to understand different Budgetary provisions made by Government of India to make sure stable lives of NOKs. The analysis of the available data can be seen in 3 parts, first is overall share of military expenditures in union budget. Secondly, Demand for grants on ‘Pay and Pensions of Defense Ministry’ and lastly, ex gratia provided by State Government of Maharashtra. The whole study is aimed to understand financial grants only during 1999 to 2019, that is post Kargil war. Methodology is absolutely on secondary data available on government websites. In the conclusion, the paper states, there is huge and continuous increase in budgetary provisions made by GOI at all levels which is to ensure good life to war widows. Especially in the case of Maharashtra, there is more than two times increase in the financial support provided to war widows in the form of Ex-gratia. This shows the attentiveness of Maharashtra government towards financial issues of war widows in their state.