CAPF and Border Security | Empower the Fighters

Tushar Srivastava

Post-independence India has been beset by several internal security problems. The successive governments have had to put in a lot of effort to put down many separatist fires including that in Kashmir which continues to drain India both in financial and human resources.

BSF personnel on the border

Until a few decades ago, the government was also engaged in controlling multiple insurgencies in the Northeast, some of which started right after independence. The Naga problem still need closure. Separatism/ militancy aided and abetted by Pakistan raged in Punjab through 1980s and early-1990s imposing heavy cost in terms of lives and economy. It was finally resolved by political sagacity of the leaders of the day. The Maoist insurgency in central India, referred to as the most serious threat to internal security by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, continues to bleed our resources.

Each of these movements/ problems have been the consequence of several disparate factors, ranging from economic disparities to real or perceived social discrimination. While in the border areas, financial and logistic support by our inimical neighbours have compounded these problems, in Central India, the tribal marginalisation from the mainstream has been exploited by Left-wing extremism.

The central armed forces often referred to as Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMF) are the mainstay of the national effort to bring down violence in these troubled areas. The quantum and spread of these problems have led to rapid expansion of these forces and their strength now is in the region of one million personnel i.e., about 60 per cent of the strength of the defence forces. The most remarkable rise of the paramilitary forces has been in the domains of border security, counter insurgency, industrial security and riot control.

The Force Formation

There are seven central armed forces. Five of these, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashashtra Seema Bal (SSB) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) operate under the ministry of home affairs (MHA). Assam Rifles (AR), though funded by the MHA operates under the command of the ministry of defence (MoD). The Rashtriya Rifles (RR), which is an adjunct of the Indian Army, also operates as an anti-insurgency force under the MoD. The RR is now learnt to have been deployed on the India-China border after the trouble in eastern Ladakh.

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