They are the eyes and ears of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). The 2000-strong civilian wing of SSB (originally called Special Service Bureau), tasked with "perception management" along the borders after the 1962 Indo-China war, are now going to become a part of the Intelligence Bureau. The government wants to significantly enhance its intelligence-gathering capabilities in the border areas, especially along Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh, at a time when the Rohingya crisis is playing out in the former.
The IB has been facing a shortage of manpower. More eyes on the border meant more men. Looking around, the government found that the civilian wing of SSB could be trained to enhance the capabilities of the IB in gathering intelligence and fulfilling the basic purpose of manpower shortage in the central agency.
So what is the expertise of this civilian wing? Does the special service bureau still exist in its original avatar?
Former SSB chief Arun Chaudhary told THE WEEK that the role of the bureau has been such that even today, if one travelled to border villages of Arunachal Pradesh or Gujarat, the residents would know about SSB. Through camaraderie, trust and close bond, they had been successful in training the people living in border areas to act as a "force of resistance in the wake of any external aggression".
In the early 1990s, the civilian wing provided critical information about Pakistan increasing its strength in its Nepalese embassy and that arms and ammunition were being routed through the porous Indo-Nepal border. Even today, they hold medical camps, provide veterinary services for cattle owned by border village families and train women in sports to facilitate their recruitment in the forces. After all, the SSB was instrumental in setting up a ladies wing of volunteer forces in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland fifty years ago.
"When I was the SSB chief, I had suggested that we increase the strength of the civilian wing and focus on intelligence gathering capabilities of the SSB. We had witnessed how the Maoists became active during the political crisis in Nepal. So it was important that we utilised our resources in the best possible manner," Chaudhary said.
He says that the government's move to transfer this wing to the IB may turn out to be productive given that intelligence gathering remains a critical task even today.
"It is not a bad idea to have dual agencies in intelligence collection. So while SSB (which is an armed force today) can have its own intelligence wing—like the G-branch of BSF—these civilian cadres can be used by the IB to enhance their own capabilities for intelligence collection in border areas. So, if something is missed by one agency, another can pick up on it," he said.
It was after the Kargil war that the concept of one border one force came into being. Today the SSB is an armed central paramilitary force, like the ITBP or the BSF, and is deployed along the Nepal and Myanmar border stretch. It has a total strength of 77,000 personnel.
It may be recalled that when the SSB was transformed into an armed force of the Union after the Kargil war, the civilian wing continued to help the armed cadres in intelligence gathering, but they were never a part of the combat force.
Even today, they do not want to don a uniform, said a senior SSB official explaining why they prefer to join the IB. "Since they are not gun-wielding cadres, they will mingle with civilians and continue their intelligence gathering and perception management work in the border areas," the officer explained, adding that it was always a better idea to have plain clothes men for such tasks rather than men bearing arms.
"Since both countries Nepal and Myanmar have open borders, the nature of deployment of SSB is not very aggressive," explained the former chief Chaudhary.
"As a leader, I always said that there was no need to fence these borders, even when such a suggestion had come from some quarters. Fencing gives signs that we are afraid and our friendly neighbours feel there is some trust deficit," he said.
It is here that the role of the civilian force comes into play, said IB officials, who admitted that they were keen to explore new territories and make use of more eyes and ears on the ground to fend off threats from illegal immigrants, insurgents and other militant outfits who crossed over into Indian territory.
