RURAL INDIA: Issues, Challenges and Solutions with Namita Waikar. (Report)

A CLOSER INSPECTION OF THE BSF HAPPENINGS 

The Border Security Forces or the BSF were formed as a response to

superintending the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. It also makes up the world's

largest guarding force today. Since then, it has reached an extremely

important echelon in budget allocations.

The BSF is to be provided with a budget of USD 70.6 billion (a 9.8% increase)

according to the union budget of 2022-2023. However, what comprises this

budget is very obfuscated and vague. Certain areas regarding paramilitary

mental health remain neglected.

This also comes with the annexation of lands owned by farmers (admitted in

the 203rd Rajya Sabha report) for the sake of extending jurisdiction.

But is bigger genuinely better, with the kind of implications the pre-existing

structure has bought?

There seems to be a causal nexus at play with the latest occurrences of

fratricide and suicide killings of our brothers in the squadron.

We take one such incident of Murshidabad. A BSF head shoots himself and

his colleague after a "scuffle" regarding the deposition of a statement in a

Raninagar PS case 496/21.

To condense the case; it entailed an FIR filed against an unknown BSF

officer: under sections 341/323/325/34 which imply alleged wrongful restraint,

voluntarily causing hurt and acts done by several person(s) (officers) in

furtherance of common intention.

All the ingredients that come together to brew the despoil of human rights and

support the evidence of their further curtailment.

The BSF has become a sort of microcosm for these frayed soldiers where

they are constantly living through a simulation of battle even when they are

not engaged in a real one.

Incidents from Amritsar, Tripura, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Doda(J&K), etc confirm

that this is a nationwide epidemic.

But before we get to the latter part of this problem at hand, it is essential that

we dissect certain aspects first.

These officers are overworked and underpaid. They are deprived of

servicemen quota, proper medical facilities and canteen facilities too.

This is instead, compensated with having to endure isolation and severe

mental distress. Training with a rigorous shoot-on-sight like order and

constraint all for some insignia with a side of humiliation by senior officers.

These are remarks made verbatim from actual BSF officers.

It is a pity that even after such crucial details come to light, these allegations

are expurgated and slammed with the officer being declared unsound. And

when incidents of killings turn up, the cause always seems to be

"unascertained".

Coming back to the dearth of resources for the paramilitary personnel despite

there being a superfluous budget for defence is astonishing.

A study from 2013 titled, 'An analysis of paramilitary referrals to psychiatric

services at a tertiary care centre' talks about the same. Amongst 18 psych

referrals, 16.7% comprised the issue regarding the inability to handle firearms.

Instead of aiding this matter, the dubious integrity of the spokespeople is

highlighted in the way they use allocated accounts for holistic inter-sector

platoon shooting competitions that are held regularly.

What we are looking at seems to be an extremely deregulated firearm use

amongst officers that are depressed and also use rifles as a probable

dopamine release outlet.

There is research adding to the same, i.e. gun use can be addicting.

“According to some reports, more than a hundred ceasefire violations

took place within a span of two months in 2016 “ (refers to the 4th chapter

of the 203rd report.)

 

“At times CFVs are a result of the emotional state of frustration of local

commanders and soldiers in a certain sector. … Conditions are also

harsh. To vent their frustration, soldiers and even commanders will

sometimes resort to firing.”

-Pakistani Officials

 

Hence, we see a spurt in the number of ceasefire violations and a refusal to

conciliate in combat. And empirically, it can be stated that there is an

extremely rage-driven reaction that is further aggravated through

indoctrination led by intransigent views.

This brings us to the finality of the causal sequence: lethal indiscriminate

killings, rapes and abuses of border residents.

The relegation of our brothers to mere tools is the result of an ill-managed

system and needs our utmost attention.

- Malaikah Niyazi