Don’t frustrate jawans, provide them with bare minimum!

This article was to look at lives of jawans from their perspective and an attempt to analyse the causes of violent behaviour which manifest on and off.


[Published in The Sentinel ARUNACHAL (www.sentinelassam.com/arunachal/) ] 

Short term fixation of the problems, as practiced over the years, has been our nemesis for decades. Lack of political will or lack of ability to think through, always deterred our state from adopting long term road-map to success and security in all its endeavors.Without mincing a word, it’s not just the men-in-uniform who are killing the state. Work departments along with Health and Education departments are killing too but with a difference. However, at the moment, top of the mind trepidation amongst public is policemen and their idiosyncrasies in tackling law and order or rather in bringing mayhem to the society. Khandu led government must realize that silence of the victims’ families can’t be bought over repeatedly with sops like compensation, rehabilitation, assurance, etc. There is an urgent requirement to review the mental and physical health of the policemen and system-structure governing them. Prima facie, all is not well within the police force but the question is where and how to kick-start addressing the pains and agonies. May be one can look at a theoretical concept applicable to the jawans to begin with. Although it dates back to 1943, yet Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is valid even today. Maslow stated that ‘physiological needs like food, air, drink, warmth, sex etc’ as the first requirement of human beings followed by safety needs, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualisation at the top. In the context of para-forces, even the rock-bottom requirements of physiological needs are not met, in addition to the second level’s love and belongingness.

Factually, many officials from the first batch of AAPBn (1988 batch) are yet to get government housing facilities, without mentioning officials from first batch of IRBn who joined para-forces a decade later. Hundreds and thousands of its personnel still in service are languishing in shacks in the ghettos. Thus, moot question is what happened to the Police Housing Corporation? Would Home Minister or Director General of Police come up with a white paper on achievements of the Police Housing Corporation? Was this corporation created to satiate the interests of a handful few? Another dimension that calls for attention is the basic requirement of a living being. While on operational deployment for months together, jawans are deprived of sex; they are put up in unhygienic places and are deprived of warmth including that from their higher ups that are mostly from APP cadre. One finds these policemen like a caged male monkey in the zoo, starved for right diet, deprived of female companionship and of course without proper cover over their heads. However, PETA activists fight for the rights of the animals but ironically there is none for the jawans!

If personnel, with an average age of more than 30 years, are still deprived of physiological needs, it is logical that frustration would manifest in some form. Arunachalees have witnessed the murders of two civilians so far; but if deprivations and consequent frustrations continue like these and are not looked into, then they would witness killings amongst men in uniform soon. Admit it or not, same set of soldiers in IRBns and AAPBns would be the most disciplined fighting policemen if state government is honest in its intent and action when it comes to providing and facilitating basic physiological requirements as cited. Another dimension, which has caused pain in the police department, is the lack of continuity at the top leadership. Invariably, Director General of Police (DGP) had been shunted out half way through the tenure. Most of us would have forgotten the time when a DGP completed his or her full tenure. With fingers crossed, discerning Arunachalees are praying that Kanwaljit Deol would serve her full tenure as DGP of the state. Deol may despise the situation confronting her at the moment but commoners are pinning their hope on her to sort out the mess. She must ensure that despicable killings of Jumchi Nguso and Miti Mepo are not repeated; officials in charge of their posts are accountable and honest. Besides the routine magisterial enquiry, DGP must institute a grievance committee to address the grievances of its foot-soldiers. After all, one should not expect unfit soldiers to deliver results.