India s long land boundaries and vast coastline have often posed a formidable challenge to our security forces in border management. The challenge gets much more complex and complicated especially in the border management of India s northeastern states which India shares with neighbouring countries such as China, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Myanmar.

The challenges are diverse and can be grouped mainly into the following categories.

Indo Myanmar Border

• India shares a 1643 km long border with Myanmar along the states of Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. It is manned jointly by the Indian Army and the Assam Rifles.

Challenges in India Myanmar Border

• Uneven terrain and dense forests along the border have made fencing difficult.
• Ethnic ties across the border means that entry cannot be restricted fully because of local socio-cultural sentiments. It has given rise to safe havens for various insurgent groups who try to mingle in the local societal milieu.
• The border is also in news for smuggling of narcotics, arms and fake Indian currency notes (FICN).
• Modernization of Chinese army has provided easy access to military grade old weapons to the insurgent groups making them heady and dangerous.
• The infiltration of Rohingya refugees who are significantly radicalized has also increased the susceptibility of the border to terror attacks.

Indo-Bhutan Border

• The border is about 700 km long and is shared along the borders of states of Assam, West Bengal, and Sikkim. Jointly Manned by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), the Border Security force (BSF) and the Royal Bhutanese army this border has remained relatively quiet and peaceful after the flushing out of ULFA terrorists through operation All- Clear by the joint forces.

Indo-Bangladesh Border

• India shares a 4096- km land border with Bangladesh. It is India's longest border with any country and it is among the states of Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Mizoram. Even after a successful land boundary agreement issues continues to persist on this border.

Challenges in India Bangladesh Border

• Illegal Immigration: According to an estimate by Ministry of Home Affairs in 2014 there are about 25 million illegal immigrants in India from this border and they are increasing at the rate of 3 lakhs/ month.
• Smuggling of cattle is a very unique problem of this particular border.
• Other activities like arms smuggling, human and narcotics trafficking, circulation of fake Indian currency notes(FICN) etc. are also widely prevalent.
• Anti-India forces like Bodoland front, ULFA etc. try to operate in the border area.
• Challenge of radicalization: The JeM( Jamaat e- Islami) etc have started radicalizing youth for money carrying anti-India activities.

Indo-China Border

• The main challenge along the eastern border of India and China is the demarcation of the border itself. The Doklam standoff of 2017 whereby India and Bhutan consider Doklam as an integral part of Bhutan was disputed by China and a skirmish broke out when India opposed road construction by the People s Liberation Army (PLA) in the region.
• China has also opposed the passage of pilgrims for annual Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via the Nathu-La pass in Sikkim in the year 2017 which was open for trade and civilian use since 2015.
• Thus with such wide diversity of challenges border management especially in the North-East has been a huge challenge for the personnel along the border.

India's Border Management
Areas of Concern in Border Management

Policy

• India still does not have a border policy or a Comprehensive national security policy. The draft National Security Policy put forward by the National Security Advisory Board in 2004 is still under consideration by the Home ministry. Adding to the woes is that India does not have a refugee policy which complicates the matter on how to legally distinguish a refugee from an illegal migrant.

Multiple Points of Command

• The border control has been haphazard since the time of Independence. Ministry of external affairs demarcates the boundaries, Ministry of Home Affairs manages them and the Ministry of Defence is responsible for border defense. Due to the multiplicity of command, a lot of confusion and coordination issues arise on the field.

Need for change in approach

• The approach of the ministries has been subjective with the change in political power at the center and There has been an endless delay in arranging talks due to which except for Bhutan there is lack of clarity. Because of an ad-hoc approach towards border management, problems across all borders exist even after seventy years of Independence.

Steps to be taken for better Border Management

Clear Policy

• India needs to have a better dispute resolution mechanism with its neighbours. There is a need for a separate department within the Ministry of External Affairs for this purpose.
• There should be meets with definite objectives and faster resolutions so that the border management is definite, objective and is not prone to either suspicion or susceptibility.
  Also, there is a need to understand that each border needs a separate approach. For example, if Indo-China border can be termed an aggressive then Indo- Bhutan border is a benign one. There is a need for stricter monitoring and greater vigilance on Myanmar and Bangladesh borders.

Border Area Development

• People and administration in border areas must be involved with agencies and forces entrusted with the responsibility to guard the borders.
• There must be a comprehensive development plan to improve living conditions as development quells distrust and encourages more involvement and responsibility to the local leadership.

Modernization

• There is an urgent need to modernize border patrolling and management. Use of drones for surveillance, need for upgradation of GIS mapping and satellite imagery and digitization of areas of the border must be looked into urgently.
• Manpower recruitment and training have to be stepped up and full capacity deployment at the border areas has to be a top priority.
• The home minister has recently emphasized setting up of border protection grid along the India Bangladesh border which would be a technological barrier and not a physical one along with state of the art surveillance systems like day night cameras, radars, sensors and intelligence agencies as fencing across all areas like rivers, nallahs etc.
• There is an urgent need to set up a technological committee consisting of experts in order to expedite procurement of equipments and immediate implementation of pragmatic recommendations.

Steps to check Illegal Immigration

• The central Government is keen to check illegal immigration as it is not only a humanitarian problem but also a security one. There is an urgent need to bring state and local governments which are on the border areas on board by consensus approach rather than an authoritarian stance.
• The process of updating National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be expedited. Also there is a need to implement the Assam Accord of 1971.
• Identify illegal immigrants by checking the validity of their voter-ID, Aadhar and land records and chuck out real illegal immigrants.
• Open a dialogue with the neighbouring countries to solve the problem on a sustainable basis.