Secure Through Development: Evaluation of India’s Border Area Development Programme

The Border Area Development Programme was initiated in the year 1986–87, to strengthen India’s security by ensuring developed and secure borders. Initially, the programme was implemented in the western border states to facilitate deployment of the Border Security Force. Later, the geographical and functional scope of the programme was widened to include eastern and northern sectors of India’s borders and as well as socio-economic aspects such as education, health, agriculture and other allied sectors. But, it is difficult to say that the implementation has been uniform in all the sectors. While the programme on the Western front along the India–Pakistan border has been fairly successful, it is yet to achieve its stated objectives on the Eastern front. Using an analytical framework, the article examines three aspects of BADP: Its context and concept; identifying challenges that hinder the Programme’s effectiveness; and certain policy prescriptions.