In the preceding chapters, we had an overview of the region and all the states, including major problem areas that need to be addressed. In this chapter, I will familiarise the readers with certain little-known facts related to the role of servicemen (SM) and ex-servicemen (ESM) of the armed forces, Para Military Forces (PMF) and Central Police Organisations (CPOs) in nation-building in their respective regions.

DEMOGRAPHY OF SERVICEMEN/EX-SERVICEMEN

Ukhrul District of Manipur

This district, the heartland of the NSCN (I&M), has a 2001 census population of 1,40,000. Of this, about 7500 are ESM with another 500 SM from the Army. In addition, there are about 1000–1500 SM and ESM of the Assam Rifles and other PMF/CPOs, totalling to about 9000–10000. When one considers the SM/ESM as a family unit (father, mother, 3 or more children), we have a population of about 45,000 or about 30% of the total population of the district. All these are people for whom the parent organisations – the central and state governments – are duty-bound to look after and provide for in terms of pensions, healthcare, priority for education, canteen services, payment rations and for problem resolution. When one expands the family sizes to individuals that the SM/ESM can directly influence, i.e. his brothers and sisters and their children, the family unit size increases to about 10 or about 90,000 to 1 lakh – 65–70% of the total population of Ukhrul District.