Immersion Districts

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12. Mandsour District

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Participants: Sandesh Bhot, Jigar Jain, Suman Chandrawat, Rahul Popat, Balakumar Sampath, Onkar nath Mishra, Vishal Suryawanshi, Srikanth M, Parul Gupta, Manish Verma

We visited several villages namely Bharpur, Ghasoi, Amba, Gujjarkhedi, Badvan lasudavan. We saw the condition of villages; interacted with some villagers this gave us idea about the village life. We also saw implementation of the government programs aimed at poverty reduction, sanitation and education.
Introduction

Mandsaur is a district in MP it is 220Km north of Indore. The major economic activity of the locals is agriculture. The major agricultural commodities are Opium, spices, Wheat. Due to opium, which can be sold for maximum of 50000Rs/Kg, the region is rich but no other industries are developed in the region. Due to inconsiderate water usage there was considerable decline of water table. The government has initiated several programs to alleviate these problems.

Government Programs
The major develop programs operating in the region are

NREGS: The rural employments guarantee programs. Infrastructure was developed through these programs. Major constructs include roads, wells, Panchavan. Panchavan is plantation program which aims to increase forest cover in the region.

Indira Awas Yojana: Through this program home construction for below povery line populace is benefited.

Integrated Watershed development program: To increase water table level this program was initiated. We visited Bharpur where small dams were constructed from farmers and government participation. According to the villagers testimony the water levels in their wells has increased from 5 feet to 40 feet in February. A small dam costs 5 Lakhs and its impact can be seen in the radius of 5 km. Other watershed projects include plantation, stop dam, gate dam.

Organic Farming: One of the initiatives is vermi compost. We have actually seen the difference between inorganic fertilizers and organic fertilizers and we can definitely say that organic farming makes a great difference. The organic fertilizers can decrease our consumption of natural gas and restores natural composition of the soil.

Land reclamation: There is considerable wasteland in the region. The government has undertaken jatropha plantation to increase the green cover. The jatropha plants can grow in water scarce region thus serves three purposes first it increases green area, second it increases water level, third it can be harvested to produce bio-diesel. We saw 1000hectares of plantation in GujjarKhedi area.

Business Opportunities
For region to develop further business activities other than farming are needed in the region. The activities which can supplant the agriculture are bio-diesel production, soya oil production, Organic fertilizer production.

13. Narsinhpur District

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Participants: Ameet Pal Singh Sandy, Himanshu Godara, Piyush Kumar Singh, Pratyush Shastri, Raghav Joshi, Shwetank Sahai, Sumant Wattas, Sushovan Rudra, Vaibhav Bunty

Our group of nine IIM Indore participants started the 450 KM road journey to Narsinhpur on the morning of Sunday, 17 January 2010. After travelling eastward for over 12 hours across, we finally reached our destination – the Circuit House and BSNL Guest House of Narsinhpur – where we put up during the visit.

Narsinhpur is situated in the central part of Madhya Pradesh and covers over 5000 sq KM in area. The district includes 1077 villages and a total population of approximately 1.2 million. Blessed with very fertile land as well as proximity to the Narmada river, Narsinhpur’s main agricultural crops include sugarcane, wheat and pulses. Sugar mills are one of the most important industrial units of the region.

During the next five days, we interacted with various stakeholders of the district such as top government officials (including the DC and CEO of Narsinhpur), grass-root level workers, villagers/farmers, women Self Help Groups (SHGs), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and industry representatives. We closely observed the lives of people in the rural parts and discussed the main issues confronting them. We also understood how government schemes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) are trying to empower unemployed inhabitants financially. Additionally, we saw how external initiatives such as World Bank’s District Poverty Initiatives Program (DPIP) are enabling rural inhabitants through micro-finance schemes and training programs.

We felt that the physical and electronic connectivity (through mobile phones) into the rural areas were mostly of acceptable standards. However, we realized that electricity and sanitation were the main infrastructural issues faced by the villagers, while education and healthcare were their top concerns in terms of facilities. Lack of education is a deep-rooted problem because it creates hurdles when government or NGO programs try to alter rural mindsets towards progressive changes. For example, while the majority of villagers rightfully demand secondary schooling in the vicinity for their children, they still discourage girls from continuing education beyond the sixth or seventh standard. Additionally, government officials pointed how lack of awareness amongst villagers about BPL (Below Poverty Line) schemes creates implementation issues.

Despite these limitations, we clearly saw that if villagers were given opportunities at the grass-root level, they were keen to drive change themselves. The DPIP program is a case-in-point. It was an extraordinary experience to see how village women organized into SHGs were taking financial responsibilities through microfinance schemes and working hard to improve their lives.

We also realized the need to create a robust information platform to create awareness and guide the people living in remote areas. For example, farmers are prone to take decisions about the crop to be sown on the basis of previous year’s prices, invariably resulting in demand-supply mismatch, distress selling and losses. Proper co-ordination and information sharing could avoid a lot of such problems. To this end, however, electricity is a major bottleneck which needs to be taken up on priority.

Finally, we are grateful to Mr. Vivek Porwal, the DC of Narsinhpur, as well as his staff, who ensured that we were comfortable during our stay. It was indeed an enriching experience by any standard for all of us to learn about the ground realities faced by the majority of our countrymen who live in adverse conditions. While it may be too early for us to give recommendations to the far- more-experienced officials working at Narsinhpur, we certainly recommend rural immersion visits to our fellow students across the country, especially those brought up in more fortunate conditions in urban areas.

14. Neemuch District

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Participants: Abhishek Rungta, Darshan Karkera, Krishnamohan R., Vipul Bansal, Supratim Chaudhury, Salil Sabhlok, Sriranga Vishnu, Ankur Manglik, Karan Sharma, Aman Mahindroo

This report is the culmination of a 5 day field visit which was undertaken to study and observe the status quo of rural development as it exists in the district of Neemuch. The visit was primarily aimed as a learning exercise and an opportunity to gain first-hand experience of the rural India and the co-existing harsh reality of life. Via this report we have tried to highlight the major issues we perceived and some possible suggestions.

Contrary to the general opinion that the government machinery is vastly inefficient, the primary issue that we have identified is: The attitude of villagers and beneficiaries towards the government initiatives is undermining the efforts of the administration for the development of the people. We propose to adopt a three-pronged approach to address this particular problem which comprises of following points:

1. Sustainable Development: A higher stress on creation of permanent assets along with providing employment is the foundation for sustained development. There is a need for making the villages’ self-dependent and to initiate development of small scale industry and to promote industry in general. There is also a need for greater micro-financing options being made available to the people in order to develop an entrepreneurial spirit.

2. Motivation and Awareness: Motivation and awareness are two distinct modules which need to be implemented in order to generate the need recognition via motivation and in the second phase, awareness about the various government schemes and possible benefits. These steps will function to bridge the vast information gap and the motivation module will also aim at address the problem of lack of ownership among people. To this end we have suggested that NGOs be involved to trigger villages through interactive and innovative media to ensure greater impact.

3. Grievance Redressal: This step comes in the light of addressing the people demand for hearing and solving their problems. The collector, Dr. Sanjay Goyal had initiated a concept of Jansunvai where the public got a receipt of their complaint and the assurance of getting it solved within the next 7 days. On the same lines we came up with this idea to be implemented at the gram panchayat and janpad level.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
Issues Observed
1. Difference in payment of labourers in different states e.g., wage is currently Rs. 100/day in Madhya Pradesh and Rs. 139/day in Rajasthan
2. Shortage of labour
3. Payment lags of few months in some cases due to complex paperwork and procedures
4. Asset creation is not a priority
5. Material and machine part restricted only to 40%
6. Unemployed people turned away for shortage of work

Suggestions
Project valuation – Incomplete projects undertaken in the NREGS should be transferred into other schemes so that the effort and money spent under the NREGS is not wasted. Appropriate amount spent under the NREGS should be transferred from the other scheme to the NREGS.

Asset creation under the NREGS should be clubbed with asset creation under a different scheme. As observed, the work target per day is not uniform across states. The work target must be modified according to the terrain and other work conditions.
SGSY (Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Scheme)

Observations
Most of the SHGs formed indulge in the preparation of mid-day meals for school students under the Mid-day Meal Scheme of the Central government. The main complaint is that the SHGs form groups only to get loans. After obtaining loans, the SHGs split up. The policy is such that money/assets are allocated to each individual which does not encourage group work. It was also observed that dummy members were registered as part of SHGs to obtain sanctions from loans.

Suggestions
We suggest that the government involves non-governmental organizations and other welfare organizations in spreading the awareness. The scope of activities being carried out by the SHGs must be widened to include more businesses as sources of income generation. As a pre-requisite, vocational training should be imparted to groups in order to make them self-sustainable. After providing vocational training, loans can be sanctioned to those SHGs to start new ventures. The role of the government or NGOs should extend beyond this in organizing these groups and providing them support to sustain and grow their ventures.

Watershed
The scheme has been in existence for 9 years. As per the conversations, farmers have benefitted from the scheme and barren lands have been converted to cultivable land. The productivity of crops per hectare of land has also increased.

Issues
One of the main issues with the scheme is dependent on rainfall and electricity. The scheme provides benefit only after the monsoon months. Farmers also complained that silting happens over time as the top soil that is eroded by the rain water gets deposited in the structure hampering the functioning of the scheme.

Suggestions
We suggest a feasibility study of constructing a large structure rather than a large number of small structures. Training should be imparted to villagers in operating these structures, so that they can maintain and run the structures.

Total Sanitation Control
Issues
Despite building the toilet structures in their homes, people still prefer to defecate in the open fields and forests. The structures are not completed in the allocated amount of Rs. 2200. The target based construction of toilet complexes impedes ownership by the people as they are not aware of the benefits.

Suggestions

• Increase awareness about the benefits of using the toilet complexes by message boards, posters, street plays, etc.

• Explore the possibility of utilizing the solid waste deposited in pits over time which would convert into manure and generate extra income.

• Provide incentives under the Indira Awaas Scheme to construct toilet complexes under the TSC by allocating the second half of the amount only after the construction of functional toilets.

• Community toilets are an option to make the villagers aware of the benefits of using toilet complexes for defecating in a hygienic manner.

• Sufficient stress should also be made on cleanliness initiatives other than TSC.

Indira Awaas Scheme
Suggestions
BPL Survey was conducted in 2001 and even as more BPL families are added upon application, no families are removed from the BPL list.

Cheques should be awarded to people in camps and they should be motivated to purchase materials in groups in order to obtain bargains.

15. Panna District

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Participants: Adarsh Sharma, Vikrant Verma, Mandeep Singh, Jaskirat Singh, Sameer Saraf, Neetesh Singh Thakur, Biswadip Paul, Ankur Soni, Bhuvan Dubey, Gaurabh Kumar Chaudhary

Panna can be a perfect example of how a city suffers from its own resource. Panna is a city having about 45 % area covered under forest land which includes the famous Panna tiger reserve but by admission of the people of the district and the local administration that is the biggest problem for Panna. The forest covers Panna from three sides which make a rail link impossible as the forest authorities won’t let a rail link be brought in through the forests. This is one of the biggest reasons for Panna to be featuring among some of the most backward districts in India according to some surveys. The presence of Panna tiger reserve, Panna Diamond mines, Pandva Falls, Chaumukhnath(a 7th century old temple with the main attraction being four idols of Bhagwan Shiva in different moods) and also being only 50 km away from Khajurao makes Panna a potential tourist destination. Tourism seems to be Panna’s only hope at this time and non availability of good connectivity to the place makes industry a distant possibility with certain units having opened and closed in the past having faced transportation problems. We found only one active industry, which is NMDC. But, there can be some source of business, such as products of Amla and Pan, as it has good presence in the district. Though it may be argued that Tourism also requires connectivity, which is true, but if we look at it from a different angle- Panna tiger reserve is just 30 kms from Khajurao and the Pandva falls 10 km from there and the city 10 km further which is a sort of tourism corridor so road connectivity can do good for it. Panna is a beautiful place with beautiful people, you can admire this statement better only after you see the cleanliness in the city. All it needs is some help so that it can fully utilise its potential. This help has to be both from the government and the private sector. Spending a week with the government officials made us realise that they are trying to do a lot but a bit more is desired.

16. Ratlam District

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Participants: Vinod Kumar, Vivek Sharma, Prakash Shaw, Avinash Kumar, Saurav Shekhar, Kaushal Kumar, Pawan Kumar Kamal, Shruti Singh, Bhrugesh Chauhan, Mohit Chandra, Archana patro

As a group of 11 participants, we went to Ratlam district, which is 145 km towards North- East of Indore, for Immersion Program. The program has given us the real insight of rural India. We never realized, facilities that are for granted could be a real challenge for others. Village life is a real struggle. One has to fight even for the trivial things like Water, Electricity etc.

Grammen Vikas Trust (GVT), an NGO with most of its policy nearly in line of PURA concept, helped us in understanding various methods that are currently used to eradicate the basic problem that villagers face like Scarcity of Water. Methods like Water-Shade and Drip-Irrigation are used to increase ground water level and optimize the utilization of water respectively.

Major learning from the program is Participatory Planning Process and its implementation, which is the central theme of PURA. During classroom training. we learnt various techniques which are used to collect data from the villagers. Some of the techniques that we learnt were Natural Resource Mapping and Social Resource Mapping. Methods that are used for these mapping includes Pie Chart, Tree Matrix and Chapatti Exercise.

We visited two villages – Haldauni and Khandarvas. There we saw the difference between the villages - one was poorly developed and other well developed. We got to see the real reason behind this difference among these nearby villages. Lack of awareness, Lack of Participation and Lack of Political Leadership were the impediments that the former village was facing.

Immersion program was an eye opener for us. We thank our Director, Collector and GVT for providing us such an exposure which has highly sensitized us towards the 70 % of the population of India.

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The Immersion programme, organised for the first time by IIM Indore, aimed at giving the students, an exposure to the administrative machinery of India. The Program was a lifetime experience, an eye opener to the ground realities of rural India, the opportunities in the dust of villages, and a feeler of Gram Panchayat activities and elections, amongst other things. For most of us, who belong to metropolitan cities, this was a humbling experience to get a glimpse of the lives in the huts of Bharat. We were able to experience first-hand the ‘Athithi Devo Bhava” attitude and humility of poor villagers.

Satna district is located 650 kms to the north east of Indore in Madhya Pradesh. We visited the gram panchayat of some of the ‘Nirmal Gram’ villages of MP – Piprikala, Raikwad, Baghai and Chitrakoot. While talking with the Sarpanch and villagers, we came to know the various problems that they face in villages. Primarily, lack of electricity, water problems, unavailability of higher education and no easy access to items of daily needs are some of the major problems that they face.

We also came to know about the implementation of various Governmental Schemes like NREGA, Ladli Laxmi Yojana and other such schemes. The success of these schemes depends largely on the awareness of the villagers. The collector of Satna district, Mr Sukhvir Singh, has done a commendable job of converting 119 villages into ‘Nirmal Gram’ Villages, which means that proper Sanitation facilities are implemented in these villages. The villagers were especially positive about the success of the NREGS project. We found that all the villages were very well connected by concrete roads. Several ‘Nirmal Neer’ (Wide Well Projects) and ‘Talao Gehrikaran’ (Pond deepening) projects are undertaken by the administration of Satna, with the assistance of Gram Panchayat, in all these villages. The development of tourist attractions at Ramvan, and the implementation of Excellent School concept for training and providing career counselling to hand-picked students from villages are other noteworthy successful projects completed by Satna administration. The administration is working on providing additional employment options to villagers, looking at alternate occupations. As Satna is rich in Limestone, the administration is working on increasing the penetration of cement and ancillary industries in Satna.

We also got a chance to contrast the status of these villages with the developed town of Chitrakoot. Due to the tremendous efforts of Nanaji Deshmukh and Deendayal Reasearch Institute (DRI), the religious village of Chitrakoot has been transformed into an urban town with all modern amenities at the disposal of residents of Chitrakoot and nearby villages. We were lucky enough to get the blessings of Nanaji Deshmukh, who inspite of being bedridden at the age of 96, granted us an audience.

The Satna administration, organised for us, a guided tour of the facilities of Deendayal Research institute and showed us the activities undertaken for the betterment of nearby villages. DRI works to provide vocational training to rural villagers apart from the various other things they perform. The different vocation training available to villagers are Bag-making, Wheat processing, Bamboo Crafts,Fruits and Vegetables processing, Tailoring amongst others.

The Udyamita Vidyapeet, Gurukul, Nanhi Duniya were other facilities we paid a visit. The Arogyadham, which includes an OPD unit, medicinal garden of 600 herbs, and hi-tech research labs for clinical research on ayurvedic medicines are other initiatives by DRI.

To sum up, the immersion program has sensitized the participants of IIM Indore and has left an unforgettable impression on our minds. The immersion program should continue to urge participants to contribute positively to society.

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Participants: Aman Gupta , Sakhawat Hasan , Abhinay Yadav , Dipraj Nandi , Mayank Shree Jain , Vaibhav Agarwal , Ayush K Agarwal , Rahul Jain , Neeraj Ramnani , Jaspreet Singh

We as a group of 10 participants visited Seoni district, which is around 600 km South- East of Indore, for Immersion Program. Spanning an area of around 8758 sq. Km, it is one of the most backward districts in Madhya Pradesh. A majority of the population is tribal, and there is high illiteracy in the district. Mr. Manoharlal Dubey is currently the District Collector.

Most of us being born and brought up in urban areas, the immersion programme was a tremendous opportunity for us to observe and learn how rural India functions and appreciate the issues underlying their administration.

First and foremost, this programme served as an eye-opener for us as it made us realize the enormity and the scale that governments have to work on. The work load on the system is huge, and given the constraints they work under, they are doing an exceptional job, contrary to the general opinion.

We were split into three groups, and visited Ghansaur, Kevlari and Kurai blocks separately. In those blocks we observed the way government schemes on Education, Health and Employment are being implemented. We noticed how National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), Sarvya Shiksha Abhiyaan, Anganwaadi and other schemes are working diligently to increase social awareness and to improve the living conditions of the rural population. We also came across how an election process is conducted, and the amount of preparation and hard work it involves.

One of the reasons we identified for backwardness of the region was lack of education. However, over the last few years, due to efforts of the government, people have started showing enthusiasm towards the same. This will only help in progress of the area in the coming years. Another positive observation from this visit was that social evils such as un-touchability and caste system that had plagued our society for so long are on decline. People are also taking an active interest in various government schemes which is also helping the government in implementing the schemes.

Visiting some of these villages was a humbling experience. Some of us visited villages where there is no road connectivity, water supply, and electricity. Survival is the main aim of people living in these villages. However, the most remarkable aspect about the people in these villages is that they are content and happy with their lives.

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Shivpuri is a district Located in northern Madhya Pradesh, bordering Rajsthan. It is one of the most backward districts of Madhya Pradesh. The Population of the district is around 14 lakh out of which 12 lakh are rural. The overall literacy rate is 59% and for women its around 41%.

1.) Dwindling resources: The district earlier had many mining activities and some plants like herbal plants and Khair which were used in kattha industry, but the resources have more or less exhausted for this or will deplete in few more years. Due to national park in the area most of plant cutting and mining activities are completely stopped in the vicinity.

2.) Water Problem: Over the week, our interaction with people of various sector pointed out that availability of water remains a big problem for this area. The pipeline being built for connecting the city with Majheria dam is a ray of hope for drinking water problem. The less amount of rainfall for past years and increase in consumption has led a continuous decrease in water level also.

3.) Not much tourism from National Park: Shivpuri is also home to a national park. The number of wild animals in the national park is very less and hence very less tourism activity is generated out of this. There are many reasons for the sorry state of national park ranging from natural reasons like less rainfall and decreasing water level to increasing trespassing by villagers.

Agricultural products
The majority of population in the district sustains on agriculture activities. The major agro products of the region are Mustard, Groundnut, Tomato and Pumpkin. While most of these products are exported to different parts of the country nothing much is done with these in the district itself. The district can have tomato ketchup, tomato pickle and other industry based on tomato. The problem of storage of tomato is biggest hurdle in this regard as tomato can be stored for maximum of 30-40 days only. For groundnuts, there are small spillers in the region but a big macro industry for this can be developed. The administration has asked the government to declare the district as groundnut district for this and things are in process.

Various Government Schemes
Various government schemes are operational in this district like NREGS, PMGSY, SJSY etc. Due to having identified as a district of lesser water level the Watershed scheme is also operational here to tap rain water in local places. The district is a backward one and a significant number of populations are tribal so schemes like BRGF and DPIP are also operational in the district.

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The district is situated in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Most of the Vidisha district lies in the Valley of Betwa River which flows from south to north. In the district, Sanchi is an important place which is amongst the most important ancient cities in India because of world famous Stupa build by The Emperor Ashoka, who was once governor of Vidisha.

During the week from January 18th-22nd ,2010 meant for Immersion Program we went to various remote villages of Vidisha district namely Taj khajuri, Munimpur, Mahoti, Anandpur and many more. With open mind we met with the villagers and tried to understand the problems faced by them. Many of us being born and grown up in urban areas do not know the difficulties faced by a major group of our society living in rural areas. We sitting in our air-conditioned chambers make policies, but do not know how these can be implemented on ground level; whether the benefits will reach to the right person in need! The program made us aware of the ground realities.

We came across a few reasons for bad situation of villages in India. We found that illiteracy, inadequate electricity, poor road connectivity, lack of awareness and high corruption levels are predominant causes. Even government is running many schemes for the benefit of poor villagers, but these schemes are either not implemented or benefit only a few. Additionally we found an inequitable distribution of agricultural land. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for villagers. Nearly 88% of land is occupied by 12% of villagers and the rest by 88% villagers which are poor. The condition is alarming and needs a long term solution under direct control of some government functionary having no intermediaries.

Even under such conditions a mention must be made of an organisation called Shri Sadguru Seva Sangh Trust, Anandpur which has taken up a unique initiative and is doing commendable work in serving the poor and less privileged. The trust runs an eye hospital and maternity hospital that provides medical services either free of cost or at very economical rates. Other initiatives taken up by the organisation include Higher secondary school, nursing school, gaushala, etc. It also plans to venture into organic farming in the near future.

BSF

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Participants: A G Lakshmanan, A Touseefullah Siddiqui, Ankit Verma, Ankur Gupta, Anshuman Bhar , Arindam Sarkar, Ashish Gupta, Bharath S, Chitlange Akhilesh Dheeraj, G V Vinay, Hara Prasad Pradhan, Hovikunu Natso, Jaya Prakash Kommu, Jhumur Ganguly, Randhir Kumar, Rohit Raj, Shreyas Prakash Panse, Shyam Sunder Ramakrishnan, Vankadara Nvd Manohar, Varun Gupta

A group of 20 participants visited the Punjab Frontier of Border Security Force (BSF). The programme was scheduled from 18th January 2010 to 22nd January 2010. During the period of these five days, the participants observed various activities and operations undertaken by the BSF and also studied various difficulties and problems faced by the jawans and officers.

The participants visited the Amritsar and Firozpur sectors of Punjab Frontier. In the visit to Amritsar sector, the participants met with Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the sector and discussed various operations as well as human resources related issues. Following the meeting, the group went to Border Outpost (BOP) Pulmoran, where they were accustomed with various surveillance equipment and weaponry used by the BSF in order to combat with miscreants at the border. The group was then familiarized with the day duties undertaken by BSF. The participants visited various observation posts and towers and had firsthand interaction with the jawans guarding the posts.

The group then proceeded to the Firozpur sector headquarters of BSF. Here the group was given the opportunity to accompany the 43rd and 143rd battalions, who were presently stationed in the sector. During the course next two days, the participants had the chance to observe the night patrolling undertaken by the BSF. BSF has recently inducted ladies constables in its force. The participants interacted with lady jawans deployed at the border and found them highly motivated and enthusiastic about the responsibilities entrusted on them.

The entire border of the Punjab Frontier is protected by the fencing erected in late 1980s in order to combat militancy. However, this has resulted in certain farmlands of nearby villagers being situated between the fencing and the international border. As a result, a number of gates were built in the fencing in order to facilitate such villagers. BSF takes the responsibility to providing passage and security to these villagers. On the visit to Ferozpur sector, the group had the privilege of studying how the security measures and management is done at these gates.

On the final day of the visit, the group met with the Inspector General (IG) of BSF Punjab Frontier Mr. Himmat Singh IPS at the Jalandhar Frontier Headquarters. Mr. Singh expressed his pleasure of having an independent group of people visiting the BSF. The participants conveyed their appreciation to BSF and shared the personal experiences they had during the programme. Mr. Singh graciously welcomed the recommendations offered by the participants to make BSF even better and assured that he would take them under consideration

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Participants: Abhinav Agarwal, Abhishek Apurv, Abhishek Chatterjee, Ankit Sharma, Anshul Bansal, Arun R S, Bharat Garg, Churiwala Gaurav Mahendra K., Piyush Mehra , Rahul Jindal, Rahul Sachdeva, Rajat Kumar Das, Shekhar Raj, Suma H S, Vivek Lama

The Border Security Force (BSF) was established in the year 1965 by Mr. K F Rustamji, who was also its first chief. The organisation was founded with the motive to protect the borders against any illegal cross-border activity like smuggling, thereby promoting a sense of security among the people living in those areas during peace time, and act as a first line of defense, protect vital installations and curb any infiltration activities during war time.

As part of our Government Immersion tour, our team visited the BSF facilities at the South Bengal Frontier, that is, border areas around the city of Kolkata. The tour began with Malda, from where we were taken to Immigration Check Posts (ICPs) at Hilli, Mahadipur, Petrapole, and with stop-overs at various Border Out-Posts (BOPs) like Kanchantar, Suvapur, Daulatpur, Kalyani and Angrail. There we were provided information about the border, the activities that the BSF was carrying out and the problems that the BSF faced.

According to the BSF, the eastern border is a far more active border than the western one (Indo-Pak border). This is because, the eastern border is plagued with widespread cross-border smuggling activities, cattle smuggling being the most prominent one. Bangladesh has a flourishing beef industry, where they not only consume beef, but also process it and export to countries in the Middle East and the western countries. And the cattle for this beef primarily come from India, especially from states like Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Stopping this illegal smuggling activity has become a major concern for the BSF, as they are handicapped by a haphazardly contoured Indo-Bangladesh border.

Cyril John Radcliffe is credited with the partitioning of India. He was the person who demarcated the regions of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Radcliffe had very meticulously partitioned the regions of India and Pakistan, keeping in mind boundaries of villages, latitudes and the availability of natural resources apart from the density of populations in the two regions. However, he lost a substantial amount of time in this planning, as a result, neglecting the Indo-Bangladesh partition lines. Hence, when it came to the boundary between India and Bangladesh, he drew the boundary on the map, sans the meticulousness he showed during the Indo-Pak partition. This has created a lot of problems.

Firstly, the boundary on the map geographically cuts through villages, fields – such that half of one village or field lies in India and the other half in Bangladesh. There are even homes which lie on the international boundary (IB). This has created problems of nationality. People do not feel that India and Bangladesh are two separate nations. There are many villagers who live in India, but their families reside in Bangladesh. For them, their familial ties are more important than national ties.

Secondly, the people there are on friendly terms with each other and are willing to trade. Now, when price of a particular commodity rises in any one of the countries with respect to the other, illegal trade is carried out, where the villagers trade the commodity from the country where it is cheap to the country where it is expensive. Therefore, if rice is Rs.15/kg in India and it is Rs.40/kg in Bangladesh (price in Taka converted to Rupees), rice is illegally traded into Bangladesh.

Due to these reasons, illegal cross-border trading is rampant in this region. Nearly every night there are cases of people getting caught with cattle or bottles of ‘Phensedyl’ cough syrup (apparently alcohol is banned in Bangladesh. The cough syrup is used as a substitute due to its alcohol content). There are numerous cases of fence cutting every week. To make conditions worse, a good part of the southern border is unfenced, making it tougher for the BSF personnel to guard the border.

Added to this, the personnel are also under a set of constraints. They are allowed to fire only in self-defence, that too on a male. They cannot even frisk the females, nor can they touch children. So, a lot of the illegal trade is carried out by ladies and children (the first batch of female constables has been deployed to tackle this problem). Moreover, many times they are attacked by men carrying ‘dah’ – a sharp attacking tool. This has resulted in the deaths of many jawaans.

The BSF, in their own words, is severely under-staffed, with one jawaan responsible for a distance of 300-400 metres. In low visibility at night, under a thick cloud of fog, it becomes extremely difficult to guard the border, more so when an army consisting of 300-400 bullocks is being smuggled into Bangladesh. It becomes tougher, when the activity is carried out using the Ganges as the channel, as some part of Ganges also lies in Bangladesh. Add to this the fact that they receive no respect from the villagers – on the contrary, they are abhorred by them, they are seen as an obstacle and, quoting a BSF personnel, “a game of chess is being played” between the BSF and the villagers. Another BSF personnel joked, “on the western border, we felt like soldiers – the fire of patriotism running in our blood, ready to kill enemies or die fighting them. On the eastern border, we feel like herdsmen – we are chasing cattle, trying to avoid their crossing over to the other country. We are actually goal-keepers, just that in the game, there is just one ball to stop!”

It is here, in these myriad problems that the BSF faces, that the quality of leadership emerges. It is extremely tough to keep the troops motivated in such trying conditions, when the BSF is virtually fighting with people from both India and Bangladesh. They are awake all night, in the cold night with thick fog cover, with minimal equipments of tracking movements in the dark and with the constraints involved, guarding the border risking their lives. The spirit of the jawaans present over there deserves salutation. It is also here, that we as citizens of India, recognize the hardships the personnel undergoes, and take necessary steps to ameliorate their situation, the first and foremost step being to keep the troops motivated to perform their duties faithfully in such testing conditions, which would require more of us to go ahead and join the BSF, to resolve their issues regarding inadequate manpower.

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Participants: Aadish Dhakad, Aastha Kumar, Anshuman Atri, Anup Kumar Agarwal, Boyanapalli Venkata Pavan K., Deepak Agarwal, Manas Shivahare, Mirajgave Yogesh Ramdas, Mohit Sharma, Naveen Gupta, Pallav Trivedi, Priyanka Sanyal, Rajat Kumar, Shankardev Dasgupta, Shishir Gupta

Border Security Force (BSF) was formed in the year 1965 by aggregation of state armed forces into one unit. Shri K. F. Rustamji was its founding father. BSF mans the Indo-Pak & Indo-Bangladesh border spanning over 7000Kms with 3323Kms along the Pakistan border and 4095.7Kms along the Bangladesh border. It mans 288.95Kms in loc in collaboration with Indian Army. BSF’s ethos is “any task, anytime, anywhere” & it is rightly reflected in the diverse set of task in which BSF is engaged in. It has three major task namely reduce trans border crimes, develop sense of security among border population and hold the ground during hostility till army arrives & fight along with the army. BSF has both peace time goals and wartime goals. During war time, it holds less threatened sectors, helps in protection of vital institutions, assists in control of refugees & POWs and in anti infiltration duties in specified areas. Battalions along the border have to fight both hostile enemies on the borders and also the Mother Nature. Battalions are shifted from one extreme colds of Kashmir to extreme hot of Jaisalmer and they have to adjust to the sudden changeover of climate.

North Bengal Frontier shares 1071.08Kms of border with Bangladesh with 5 Battalions in Raiganj, Kishanganj, Silliguri, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar. Frontier mans 978.29Kms of land border & 92.78Kms of riverine border. This border has a lot of peculiarities like enclaves & adverse positions.

Enclaves are places in which land and people belong to same country & in adverse positions land and people belong to different countries. Enclaves are land holdings of a country surrounded on all sides by another country. Presence of enclaves, villages ahead of fencing, unfenced area, riverine area, un-demarcated area, disputed area & adverse positions create problems in guarding the border. Considering Bangladesh as a friendly country, BSF has to cater to demands of population on a priority as compared to the western border where the rules are straight forward. Major trans-border crimes in this area are – smuggling, infiltration/ex-filtration, inadvertent crossi