Abstract

Civic Action Programme (CAP) is a Central Sector Scheme which is meant for welfare of border population including people residing in North East (NE) region. The study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in order to measure the efficiency of four Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) implementing CAP in NE Region from the financial year 2015-16 to 2019-20. The empirical findings reveal that the CAPFs conducts programme at 71.21% of overall technical efficiency score i.e. output could be increased up to 28.79% without changing the input. Total programmes have more than doubled in the last five years, from 411 during 2015-16 to 842 during 2019-20. The scheme is inclusive in terms of participation of women, SC, ST, OBC and rural coverage. Strength of the programme are: only programme that bridges the gap between civilians and armed forces; promotes humanitarian approach; works in difficult terrain; promotes peace and harmony; receives overwhelming support from civilians; reduces feeling of alienation of inhabitants of border population; and counters false propaganda of anti-peace elements. In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs may consider to strengthen the scheme further by additional allocation of financial resources coupled with improved outreach, giving more autonomy to ground level CAPFs for selection of programmes, widening the ambit of the programme and including civilians’ training for recruitment as part of CAP.

Keywords: Civic Action Programme, Central Armed Police Force, Insurgency, Data Envelopment Analysis