The nowhere people of Punjab’s border villages

THE recent anti-drug awareness walk by Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria in the state's border belt has stirred a political storm, with prominent leaders of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and BJP, as well as Radha Soami sect head Gurinder Singh Dhillon, joining it. This is perhaps the third such visit undertaken by the Governor in the belt since he took over office on July 31, 2024.Drug addiction is a serious concern and is closely linked to cross-border activities. There are many other issues faced by residents of the border areas but they have hardly attracted the attention of either the Central or state governments. This border includes the six districts of Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka.As per the 2011 Census, the border belt was 16 km from the Zero Line and included 1,838 villages, 10 towns and a population of about 2.5 million. Of these, 279 villages were located on the Zero Line, within a radius of 500 metres to 3 km from the international border.The length of the international border in Punjab is 553 km. This limit was extended by 50 km in 2021, not physically but as an extension of the Border Security Force (BSF) jurisdiction.This border is perhaps one of the most heavily guarded, hypersensitive and violent borders in the world. After Partition, the main objective of governments has been to strengthen the border, while the problems and hardships faced by the people living in the belt have been ignored.More than 78 years later, the tragedy of the violent Partition still haunts the people. Hostile relations between India and Pakistan, wars, clashes, smuggling, terrorism and a violent environment have brought untold miseries and suffering, resulting in large-scale migrations from the border belt since 1947.Of the 279 villages on the Zero Line in 1947, only 221 villages remain. The rest have simply disappeared. They are called be-cherag (uninhabited), or ghost villages.Sometimes one wonders whether these villages (except for a few in Tarn Taran district) are even a part of Punjab — the living conditions are so different.Here, deprivation, backwardness and poverty are quite visible. Access to education and medical facilities is very low. The literacy rate in these villages is much lower than the average. The condition of the roads is pathetic; the worst are those leading to villages across the Ravi and Sutlej.Continuous migration has also affected their demographic structures. The situation has reached such a point that only those who can’t live or migrate anywhere else live here.The rich have settled in nearby towns and cities. The reasons for the shift are backwardness, difficult living conditions, unemployment, lack of educational opportunities, the constant presence of security forces — and the natural desire to live a better life.The ubiquitous presence of soldiers, border posts, barbed wire, poor infrastructure, illegal activities such as drug-running and the otherwise presence of drugs, weighs down those who live here in multiple ways.Surveillance by intelligence agents is constant, both in times of war and peace. The people of the border are constantly viewed with suspicion. Whenever any untoward incident occurs on the border, the locals are the first to be targeted, their houses searched and family members questioned on the slightest of reasons.The fear that they may be forcibly displaced on one pretext or another at any time of the year haunts these border folk.They are the nowhere people of Punjab. They complain that no one wants to marry their children, as no one from elsewhere in Punjab wants to live here, and so boys and girls from these villages end up marrying each other. "We are considered to be smugglers, anti-national and uncultured," rue many locals, especially from the border districts of Amritsar, Ferozepur and Gurdaspur.Agriculture is the main source of legal employment here, but most farmers have small holdings, contributing to the growing sense of despair and ennui.Smuggling of gold, opium, weapons, fake currency, marijuana — and now heroin — has been common in the border areas of Punjab since 1947. Mostly, though, the smugglers are not residents of these villages. They don’t belong here.But because border villagers have so few alternatives, the temptation to become less deprived and less poor — and allow themselves to become carriers or “pigeons” — by picking up and moving smuggled goods, even if it’s for a petty fee, is huge. The villagers understand that they are paying a heavy price, including with their lives. But because they’ve been forgotten, by local authorities as well as by the state, they realise that they have no one to fend for them.Some villages have been stigmatised as villages of smugglers. As a result, a large number of innocent people have to bear the brunt of crimes committed by a few, that too mostly outsiders.Security forces argue that not everyone is innocent. How else, despite strict surveillance, drug trafficking, arms smuggling and anti-social activities are rampant? This can’t happen, they argue, without the connivance of people who live beyond the fence. Certainly, there is a grain of truth in what the security forces say.If things could get worse, they have. The total closure of the India-Pakistan border at Attari, both road and rail, has meant that the livelihood options of people who live in these border villages — many of whom worked menial jobs, like cleaners and labourers — are down to zero. The border villagers of Punjab want the restoration of normal relations between India and Pakistan so that they can at least try and return to making an honest living.Since this last plea is unlikely to be heard in these times, these border folk want the Centre and state governments to take them into confidence when missions are undertaken to control the smuggling — and abuse — of drugs. They applaud initiatives like the anti-drug walk by Governor Kataria, but point out that these rallies could be far more effective if they, the real stakeholders, are taken into confidence.

The nowhere people of Punjab’s border villages

A large number of innocent people have to bear the brunt of crimes committed by a few, that too mostly outsiders.

JAGRUP S SEKHON

The nowhere people of Punjab’s border villages

A large number of innocent people have to bear the brunt of crimes committed by a few, that too mostly outsiders.

JAGRUP S SEKHON

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