Village Defence Committees

Village Defence Committees

• Kashmir and Jammu L-G Manoj Sinha have declared that the UT would establish Village Defense Guards(VDG).
• The Union Ministry of Home Affairs gave its approval to the plan to establish VDGs in J&K's at-risk districts.

JK Village Defense Committee (VDC): What Is It?

• As a force multiplier against militant attacks, the Village Defense Committees were first established in the former Doda district (now Kishtwar, Doda, and Ramban districts) in the middle of the 1990s.
• The Village Defense Committee (VDCs) have now been renamed as Village Defence Guards(VDG). The Village Defence Guards (VDG) will receive a gun and 100 rounds of ammo, much like a Village Defense Committee

What distinguishes VDGs from VDCs?

• Both the VDG and the VDC are civilian militias that have been given weapons and ammunition to defend themselves from attackers until security authorities can arrive.
• Under the new scheme, the government would pay the VDG leaders Rs 4,500 per month, while the others will receive Rs 4,000 each.
• The VDGs, will function under the direction of the SP/SSP of the district concerned.
• While in the VDCs, only the Special Police Officers (SPOs) leading them were provided a remuneration, of Rs 1,500 monthly. The SPOs, the lowest rank in the J&K Police, used to be retired army, paramilitary, or police personnel.

VDCs composition:

• Each VDC had a minimum of 10-15 former service members, former police officers, and physically fit local youngsters who joins on a voluntary basis.
• At least five of them were offered, through the district superintendent of police, 303 rifles with 100 rounds each.
• The allotment of weapons could go up depending on the credentials of the volunteers, the total population of a village, and its security requirements, as assessed by the district magistrate and SSP concerned.

Why the VDCs were created?

• The concept was inspired by the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak Wars when the government arming ex-servicemen and physically fit young in bordering villages to prevent spy infiltration from Pakistan.
• By the middle of the 1990s, the militancy that had started in Kashmir in the early 1990s had expanded to the nearby Doda area.
• The Home Ministry decided to establish the VDCs in 1995 to curb this exodus after Kashmiri Pandits were compelled to leave the state in the early 1990s as a result of increasing massacres, which caused Hindus to move from villages to adjacent towns.
• Later, as terrorists increased their operations in the districts of Udhampur, Reasi, Rajouri, Poonch, Kathua, and Samba, the plan was extended to other parts of the Jammu division.

Controversies:

• Along with their accomplishments, the VDCs had to deal with accusations of extortion, murder, rape, and other crimes, as well as human rights breaches.
• After peace returned, there were demands from certain quarters to disband the VDCs in 2002.
• The number of VDC members has dropped significantly, either because of their involvement in a criminal case, or the government taking back their weapons once they turned 60. Apart from this, many VDC members have surrendered their weapons in the absence of remuneration.