‘Border Haats’ to boost peace, security: Experts

The ‘Border Haats’ along the India-Bangladesh frontier will promote peace, security, stability and prosperity across the borders, experts, economists and traders said as they urged the government to expand their utility and functioning.

The four Border Haats (markets), set up in Meghalaya and Tripura in 2011, 2012 and 2015 and six more —four in Meghalaya and two in Tripura—have been approved by the governments of India and Bangladesh to promote the local business and livelihood of the people living along both the sides of the frontiers. However, these Border

Haats have remained closed since March last year as precautionary measures against the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and consequent lockdown, causing immense loss to the people living bordering villages.

Western Tripura’s Sepahijala District Additional District Magistrate Subhasis Bandopadhay while talking to IANS said that as the Covid induced situation was largely tamed in India and Bangladesh, both the countries are keen to reopen these bordering markets.

Jaipur-based think-tank and international NGO CUTS International, which have done several studies on the border trade and Border Haats had suggested to the Indian government to restart these local markets maintaining necessary precautions against Covid-19, including social distancing as these markets boost the economy, fortify ties among the people of the two neighbours and also check illegal trades. CUTS International Executive Director Bipul Chatterjee said that during a virtual discussion on Thursday evening, experts, economists, industry body officials and traders have suggested that the IndiaBangladesh “Border Haats” should feed into the larger picture of border areas development.

Industry body FICCI’s North-East Advisory Council Director Biswajit Chakrabarty said that there should be consolidated efforts in enhancing the existing value chains.

“The betel nut trade is an excellent example in this regard. Similarly, Bangladesh may explore possibilities of importing raw materials from Assam across the border for its thriving plastic industry instead of getting them from far Middle East. Micro and small enterprises will play a critical role in bringing about economic integration through multiple collaborations and innovation.”

Chakrabarty emphasised on the fact that ‘Border Haats’ could be developed as common contact points for business interaction and networking allowing people on both sides of the border.

Sreeradha Dutta, Centre Head and Senior Fellow of the Delhi based ‘Vivekananda International Foundation’, said that the larger infrastructure projects and interventions along the border areas connecting mainland India with the South Asian economies with northeast India as the gateway would yield further results if the Border Haats can be seen as platforms beyond a mere trade escalation mechanism. She also stressed on gender dimensions of the Border Haats as they could empower the women in the border communities to engage in the trade thereby earning a livelihood.

Bangladesh’s leading multi-task NGO ‘Unnayan Shamannay’ and the CUTS International jointly organised the virtual discussion titled ‘Border Haats: An

Opportunity to Strengthen Cross-border Value Chains between India and Bangladesh’. Nazneen Ahmed, Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, while participating in the talks from Dhaka, said: “It is an imperative that we think about the scalability and innovations to promote border economic zone.” “Further development of information and communication technology facilities will be a welcome step to escalate the Border Haats in the e-commerce platform. Apart from skill training, creation of a robust supply chain of products traded across the border and creating appropriate marketing strategies are equally important,” she said.