Poster Boys Suffer In Silence

The high octane ‘Beating retreat’ ceremony at the Joint Check post, Wagha-Attari border gives one an adrenaline rush that is experienced nowhere else. The carefully choreographed ceremony is conducted each day  at sunset, in which men of the Border Security Force and rangers from Pakistan match one another’s aggression by exchanging stares, thumping their chests, flexing muscles and, best known of all, stamping their feet bringing them from above their shoulders.  

While everyday spectators in excess of ten thousand cheer these  jawans as they go about doing the perfectly synchronized parade that lasts nearly 30 minutes, these men silently suffer searing pain in their joints caused by the high impact strike of foot on the hard bitumen-gravel surface  when it is brought down from nearly eight feet. Most of those who participate in the parade are suffering from pain in their knees, in some cases,  it is very acute.  “I am on pain-killers”, says a jawan who has been doing the parade for nearly two years.  “70 per cent of those who do parade suffer from pain in their joints”, he adds. I have pain in my knees, I cant place my heel on the ground for the first ten minutes after I wake up”, says another jawan.

From a pool of forty men, each jawan gets to participate in the parade thrice each week. At times, they have to do it even four times. But participating in the parade doesn’t mean just the parade. They do seven hours of duty that is broken into day and night duty. And then there is the parade that is three to four hours’ job for men participating in it. “We know it is important to do it and we take pride in it. But the doctor says you shouldn’t stomp your foot so hard.”.

There have been numerous proposals including one to lay a rubber surface to reduce the impact on joints. But those did not materialise

Two months back, the jawans have been provided with new shoes with a thicker, softer sole, with an aim to reduce the impact on knee joint and the back.  The jawans say it is certainly better with the new shoes, but not good enough to prevent the injuries that the parade causes. “The shoes are good only if we hold ourselves back. But how can we do that when we are doing the parade in our full flow with gusto!, It won’t look good.”, says  a jawan.

A 24 year old jawan who has been doing the parade for over two years now says that he began experiencing pain in his knee joints a few months ago. “At times, it is so severe that I have to take painkillers “  He has never been taken to a specialist.  A 32 year old jawan said he feels acute pain in his knees when he climbs stairs. “I don’t feel it during the parade as my body is warm, but if I do some movement of knee now, I feel pain.” Some of these men even suspect that the high impact striking of feet causes infertility. “There are three-four men who can’t have kids.”

Deputy Commandant JS Kang who is the parade commander of the Beating the Retreat ceremony says that the pain occurs because jawans at times do not warm up properly before the parade. He adds it’s important to land the entire foot all at the same time and not just the heel first. Kang also says that the BSF has also introduced the drum beats that synchronise with the stamping of the foot during the parade so that the jawans can land their feet relatively softly, without losing on firmness and aggression of the drill.

The jawans generally do a six year tenure at the Wagha border before they are shifted elsewhere. But there is no relaxation given to these jawans during their next posting. When I spoke to these jawans, the one request they made to me was to get their demand to the authorities that those who suffer from joint pain due to the parade, should be posted in positions where they don’t have to do patrolling duty. “There are no set guidelines as such, if an officer is kind hearted, he would exempt, otherwise one is expected to the patrolling duty. Many who did parade before us are now doing patrolling duty despite the pain”, say the jawans.