Village Defence Guard Scheme: Effective Enough?

The Government of India has once again revived the Village Defence Guard Scheme to arm the citizens living in hostile regions to protect themselves and their communities in times of any adverse terror attack. Equipping them with training and adequate weapons will not only make them feel secure but their timely action might avert a big terror attack on our armed forces camp.

As per The Hindu, several women have shown interest to be a part of the scheme by braving severe colds while training inside the Crpf camp. Recent terror attacks in J&K, targetting Hindu community members had forced the Central Government to implement this scheme on a war footing basis.

Amid chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, all the training villagers’ have been provided .303 bore rifles to hit the target while changing positions.

The Crpf & Army personnel have been given the task to train the villagers. The interesting part is that they are ready to give up their life while braving hostile situations when asked by reporters. Earlier also the scheme was implemented but due to corruption and allegations, the then government had to disband the formed Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in 2000. Now again under the chairmanship of our home minister Shri Amit Shah, the government is confident about the success of the scheme.

Going back to history, India saw a huge genocide of the Hindu community in its own country back in 1990. A huge number of people were killed, women were raped, and forced to convert to Islam faith during the massive killings. Outflux of a huge number of people from the Hindu community had to abandon their homes and profession. If villagers were trained during that time, then they might have mustered the courage to fight against the odds.

Recent targeted killings of the Hindu community forced the government again to take credible steps to stop such barbaric happenings and with the implementation of this Village Defence Guard Scheme, it will be interesting to watch if trained villagers come up in support of their armed forces during hostile situations and if it helps in reducing terror attacks.

Do you think that the Village Defense Guard scheme will be strong enough to tackle the undesired situations? Should the Government add some more states/UTs like Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and other states bordering hostile neighbours under the scheme in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments below. I’ll be happy to read them and if you like this blog, please hit the clap button.