MHA contemplates raising civilian home guards along China border

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is contemplating a plan to raise Border Wing Home Guards (BWHG) along the border with China, similar to the guards on the India-Pakistan border, officials told The Hindu.

The BWHGs draw from the civilian population living in border areas, and act as ancillaries to the Army and other border forces during emergencies. There are seven States authorised to have BWHGs: Meghalaya, Tripura, Assam, West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.

Used in Operation Sindoor

However, they are currently operational only in Rajasthan, with 2,279 BWHGs now active in the State. Their utility was realised during the recent Operation Sindoor when their services were required to collect or disseminate information among the border population.

“It is a voluntary force and Rajasthan is the only State which has BWHGs in the present times. They perform the responsibilities of a Constable and are usually enlisted for three to four years. 25% cost of training and financial support is borne by the Government of India. The usual pay compares to ₹800-900 per day, equivalent to that of a Constable’s salary,” an official said.

Augmenting presence, intelligence collection

The MHA held a meeting recently on raising the strength of the BWHGs, to enable active engagement with border guarding forces, including the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) which is deployed along the 3,488 km border with China.

Since 2020, more than 50,000 Army and ITBP personnel have been deployed at eastern Ladakh. The raising of BWHGs will help in augmenting India’s presence and intelligence collection efforts in the border areas, a senior government official said.

Twenty Indian personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops on June 20, 2020 along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, in what was possibly the worst incident between the two countries in decades.

After several rounds of talks, there are now 26 active patrolling points (PPs), out of 65 PPs in Eastern Ladakh that are not being patrolled by Indian troops since April-May 2020. The areas which were patrolled earlier have been turned into “buffer zones”, with the Chinese also not sending troops there. PPs are often used to assert territorial claims along the undefined border.