Indian Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF): Missions and Modernisation

Abstract

Naxalite violence has imposed economic costs on India, particularly on the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states through various direct and indirect consequences such as destruction of infrastructure, diversion of public funds to security, restricting trade, disincentivizing private investment ect. Therefore one of the key constructs of the Indian Government’s anti-naxal strategy is to kick start economic and industrial activity in the region through revival of closed industries, bringing in fresh investments and importantly providing security to those industries struggling to survive. Since, 'Police' and 'Public Order' are State subjects; action against the Maoist in the LWE affected states is the responsibility of the State Governments themselves. The Central Government monitors the situation and supplements and coordinates State efforts by augmenting force levels through the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). The provision of security in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected states, when viewed along with the terrain and infrastructure constraints, poses major challenges to the CAPFs resulting in deployment of higher force levels and requests for force modernisation. There are six Indian CAPFs namely Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and National Security Guards (NSG) and one Central Paramilitary Force (CPMF) i.e. Assam Rifles (AR) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). NSG and AR have Indian Army personnel on deputation. By virtue of their primary tasking and deployment AR, BSF, ITBP and SSB are termed as ‘Border Guarding Forces’. The two part article evaluates the internal security challenges faced by the CAPFs and the actions taken or proposed to be taken by the Central Government to modernize them. This article was published in the December 2012 and January 2013 issues of the ‘Geopolitics’ Magazine.