S.K. Sood

The Border Security Force (BSF) suffered severe setbacks in the shape of two tragedies in the first week of March. The largest border guarding force of the world lost seven precious lives in two separate incidents of fratricide on two consecutive days on 5 and 6 March.

In the first incident at Amritsar along western borders, a jawan opened indiscriminate fire on his colleagues before shooting himself. Five jawans including the shooter lost their lives whereas one is still recovering from serious injuries suffered during the shoot-out. While a court of inquiry will examine the reasons for the incident, it is said that the perpetrator, besides being overburdened by duties, was under a lot of debt. Reportedly, he was under psychiatric treatment—a fact which he had hidden from his superiors.

The second incident on March 6 at Behrampur in West Bengal along India-Bangladesh border was personally painful for me because the victim of fratricide had joined that unit as a promising young combatant when I was commanding it in the late Nineties. Reportedly, an altercation between aggressor and the victim about an incident that occurred when they were deployed together for an operation for which both were facing proceedings in a civil court, lead to the unfortunate loss of life of both.

While immediate provocation for these incidents is a matter of inquiry, the pent-up frustration and stress amongst troops is a major cause of such tragic incidents. The stark reality of stress and frustration amongst troops and commanders is apparent from the data of such incidents and rate of attrition in the Central Armed Forces (CAF).

The CAF have witnessed 25 incidents of fratricide in a period of three years from 2019-21 in addition to the above two incidents of March. Besides fratricide, the government informed Lok Sabha in 2020 through a written reply that 128 CAF personnel had committed suicide in 2019 compared to 96 in 2018 and 121 in 2017. Besides the above, the high rate of Voluntary retirements and resignation by the personnel of these forces is indicative of high stress and low satisfaction level amongst troops with the working conditions in these forces. Almost 47 thousand personnel of these forces have proceeded on voluntary retirement or resigned from service in a period of four years from 2016 to 2020 as per reply of Union home ministry in response to a Parliament question in 2021. This is over five per cent of the total strength of these forces over and above the normal three per cent wastage every year. Such high rate of attrition, in-spite of inherent job security and prevailing heavy unemployment rate is a cause of concern and underlines the need for identifying the causes and initiate remedial measures.

The first step in addressing the issue of stress amongst troops and commanders is to accept the fact that it exists. However, the standard response of officials to queries reveals an attitude of denial. The most common reasons attributed for high rate of attrition and tragic incidents of fratricide and suicides etc., are ‘personal’. This is far away from actual facts. More important are the reasons relating to working conditions in these forces which are less than satisfactory. The problems leading to high stress that troops in these forces face can be categorised as operational, administrative and personal.

The most important reason for high stress amongst troops relates to long hours of duty and lack of rest and relief. The duty hours are generally more than 12 hours at staggered times during the day. Regularity of rest, relief and sleep pattern for the troops especially, in the border guarding fo