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The Gurkha families fighting for their pensions

Patrick O'HaganBBC Berkshire political reporter , Reading
BBC A Gurkha widow is wearing a bright yellow dress with a red shawl draped over her right shoulder. She also has a gold stud in her left nostril. Staring straight into the camera she's sitting in her bedroom and you can see the vague outlines of a few glass jars over her shoulder as well. A beautiful deep red shawl thrown over her right shoulder Indumati Thapa is standing in her small bedroom. Wearing a yellow dress you can see the foot stool she sits on when not in her bed behind her. BBC
Indumati Thapa says her pension and benefits do not cover the day-to-day costs of living

Now aged 87, Indumati Thapa's life revolves around a group of similarly widowed women. Her husband, a former Gurkha who fought alongside the British in south east Asia, died in 2020.

He left her a pension, but Gurkhas who retired before 1997 receive far less than their British Army counterparts.

Theirs are based on Nepalese living costs, not those of towns like Reading, where thousands of Gurkhas retired to.

Indumati says her pension is so small she has to rely on the generosity of friends, and roughly £100 a week in benefits, to cover her rent, bills and food costs.

The government says it "holds the distinguished service of the Gurkhas in the highest regard and remains firmly committed to supporting the welfare of Gurkha veterans and their families".

Many Gurkhas disagree and want their pensions increased.

Indumati lives in a small two-bedroom flat with her friend Devisara Rana in central Reading.

Squeezing into her small bedroom I ask her how she feels about her life.

Her friend and local Labour councillor Pratikshya Gurung translates for her.

"She thinks they've been let down a bit and says she would be grateful if the pension was bigger than it is as that would make her living conditions and financial situation better," Pratikshya says.

A smiling Pratikshya Gurung is standing in front of a Union Jack flag with a couple of older Gurka women sitting behind her. She's wearing an open necked blue and white striped shirt, revealing a small necklass with a cross on it.
Pratikshya Gurung says older Gurkha veterans and their wives have been let down by the British government

For those whose husbands fought for the British in the jungles of places like Malaya and Borneo in the1950s and 60s time is now running out.

The Labour MP for Central Reading Matt Rodda says he is well aware of that fact, and he and other MPs have been pressing both the previous Conservative government and the current Labour one to improve older Gurkha's pension rights.

He says he is also trying to make sure they and their families get all the help they need.

Unable to read or write, many of them rely on younger relations to navigate the modern world, one very different from the land they grew up in.

Matt Rodda MP is standing alongside Pratikshya Gurung, talking and listening to a group of Gurkha veterans at their community centre in Reading. Deep in conversation.
Central Reading's Labour MP Matt Rodda says the country owes the Gurkhas eternal gratitude

The Labour MP says: "It's so important we show our support for these elderly people. They served this country with distinction over decades and decades."

The Ministry of Defence says: "The government holds the distinguished service of the Gurkhas in the highest regard and remains firmly committed to supporting the welfare of Gurkha veterans and their families.

"We will continue to work with partners in both Nepal and the UK to ensure Gurkha veterans and their families receive the support and recognition they deserve."

Wearing a bright red card cardigan, a string of pearls around her neck Devisara Rana is sitting in her bedroom on a black camping chair. Wearing glasses her expression reflects the fact she's lost both her husband and son in recent years.
Devisara Rana, who recently lost her husband and son, says she just wants to be able to fly home to Nepal

With Pratikshya again translating, I speak to Indumati's close friend Devisara Rana, whose husband and son are no longer with us.

She says she is at peace with the fact all her worldly possessions fit in a bedroom that is no more than 12ft long, by eight feet wide.

Pratikshya tells me all Devisara wants now is to go back to Nepal, but fears she will be unable to afford the trip.

"She doesn't know how long she has got to live but that however many days she does have left she wants to spend those days with her family," she says.

"She just wants to be able to go home one last time."