The Border Security Force has rolled out a project to relieve border guards of stress which often drive them to commit suicides. As part of the project, the BSF now encourages more interaction between the guards and the officers -- be it on the border outposts or on the play fields.

Though the project was conceived before the border guards in Bangladesh mutinied, it gained in significance after the developments shook the neighbouring country. BSF officers in Assam and Meghalaya frontiers are now interacting with the personnel more frequently to understand their grievances, if any, and sort them out. It has often been seen that stress in soldiers arises out of problems faced by their families back home and not because of continuous deployment on the border, BSF Inspector-General P K Mishra, who is now posted as the staff officer at the force's frontiers headquarters in Shillong, says.

''We have asked the officers and commanders to interact with the jawans more and share their problems. This will contribute in reducing stress,'' Mishra said. He said the deputy commandants, posted at the battalions, were being asked to ensure that they knew every jawan by his name, his address and other details.

Mishra insisted that officers and jawans at the border posts had the same food and spent their leisure playing games together. ''The commandant listens to the problems of the jawans and ensures that they get leave when required,'' Mishra said. A Suggestion Book is also placed at every border outpost so that the jawans can register their grievances which thus come to the notice of the higher-ups. ''The jawans have registered their complaints regarding drinking water and other welfare facilities.

We ensure that their needs are taken care of,'' the IG, who initiated the project, said. Mishra says it has been seen that during roughly 35 years of his service, a jawan spends hardly five years at home giving the best part of his life to his country.