Summary: Non-signatory India acknowledges the humanitarian concerns over cluster munitions, but views them as legitimate weapons if used in accordance with international humanitarian law. It has not commented on its position on accession to the ban convention. India abstained from voting on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016 and has never attended a meeting of the convention.

India produces and exports cluster munitions and imported them as recently as 2013. India is not known to have used cluster munitions. It has not disclosed information on its stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of India has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

India has not attended a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions or made a statement detailing its position on acceding to the ban convention. India has acknowledged humanitarian concerns at the “irresponsible use” of cluster munitions, but views them as “legitimate” weapons if used in accordance with international humanitarian law.[1]

In December 2016, India abstained from the vote on a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[2] It abstained from the vote on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[3]

India did not participate in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4]

India has not participated in any international or regional meetings relating to the convention. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016.

India is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

India is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).[5] In December 2016, it was one of few states to express regret at the 2011 failure of the CCW to adopt a protocol on cluster munitions, which has effectively ended the CCW’s deliberations on the matter, leaving the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole international instrument dedicated to ending the suffering caused by these weapons. India has not proposed any further CCW work on cluster munitions since 2011.[6]

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

India produces and exports cluster munitions and has imported them in the past. The Monitor has not been able to verify any use of cluster munitions by India or obtain detailed information on the stockpile of cluster munitions.

India has produced cluster munitions using ground-delivered artillery projectiles, rockets, and missiles. It is not known to have developed or produced air-dropped cluster munitions.

State-owned India Ordnance Factories advertised in 2006 its capacity to produce for export 130mm and 155mm artillery projectiles containing dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions equipped with a self-destruct feature.[7] These ground-delivered cluster munitions were supposed to be produced at Khamaria Ordnance Factory near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh as the result of a transfer of production technology from Israel Military Industries, but there are doubts about whether this capacity has been active in recent years.[8] In response to a Right to Information request, a Ministry of Defence official stated in 2012 that India does not produce 130mm and 155mm artillery containing DPICM submunitions, but acknowledged a 130mm version was being developed.[9]

The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of India’s Ministry of Defence has produced a cargo rocket containing antitank/antimaterial submunitions for the 214mm Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher system.[10] In June 2015, a DRDO official told media that submunition warheads for the Pinaka system had been tested at a firing range in Pokhran, Rajasthan.[11] Other sources claim that warheads containing submunitions were developed for the Agni, Dhanush, and Prithvi ballistic missile systems.[12]

India has imported cluster munitions from the United States (US) and other countries.

The US announced a sale to India in 2008 of 510 air-delivered CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons.[13] In 2010, US arms manufacturer Textron announced that it had received a US$258 million contract to provide India with 512 CBU-105.[14] The Indian air force began receiving the weapons in early 2013.[15]

Jane’s Information Group lists India as possessing KMG-U dispensers, as well as UK-made BL755, BLG-66 Belouga made in France, and Soviet-produced RBK-250-275, and RBK-500 cluster bombs.[16] In 2006, India bought 28 launch units for the Russian-produced 300mm Smerch multi-barrel rocket launchers with rockets equipped with dual-purpose and sensor-fuzed submunitions.[17]

In February 2017, Russia displayed its RBK-500U SPBE-K cluster bomb, which contains 15 SPBE-K sensor-fuzed submunitions, at a military exhibition in Bangalore called “Aero India 2017.”[18] In February 2013, Textron displayed the CBU-105 at an arms fair in Bangalore, India.[19]

According to the 2017 NGO report “Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions: a shared responsibility,” the State Bank of India is involved in investments in the production of cluster munitions.[20]

Policy

The Republic of India has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

In November 2016, India stated that “The humanitarian ideals espoused by the APLC [Mine Ban Treaty] regarding antipersonnel landmines have universal appeal. Our presence as Observers in this and previous meetings of States Parties…is an expression of our support for these objectives.”[1] In October 2016, India reiterated its long-held position that the Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) “enshrines the approach of taking into account legitimate defence requirements of states with long borders.” India has previously offered the same explanation each year, stating it “supports the vision of a world free of anti-personnel mines” and that the “availability of cost-effective alternative military technologies that can perform the legitimate defensive role played by anti-personnel landmines will considerably facilitate the goal of the complete elimination of anti-personnel mines.”[2]

India attended, as an observer, the convention’s Third Review Conference held in Maputo in September 2014. India sent an observer to the Mine Ban Treaty Fifteenth Meeting of States Parties in Santiago, Chile, in November–December 2016, but did not attend the intersessional meetings in June 2017.

On 5 December 2016, India abstained from voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 71/34 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it has on similar annual resolutions since 1997.

India is party to the CCW and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

India is one of the few countries still producing antipersonnel mines. India states that all production is authorized and controlled by government agencies.[3] Production of antipersonnel mines appeared to be ongoing in 2016 and 2017. Purchase order records retrieved from a publicly accessible online government transaction database list at least a dozen private companies providing components of M-16, M-14, and APER 1B antipersonnel mines to the Indian Ordnance Factories in late 2016 and throughout 2017.[4] Components were produced under these contracts and supplied to the Ammunition Factory Khadki and Ordnance Factory Chandrapur, both in Maharashtra state.[5]

Previously, during 2010 and into 2011, the Indian Ordnance Factory Board produced M14 and M16 antipersonnel mines. The quantities produced are not known.[6] In 2007–2008, India produced at least five types of mines, including two types of antipersonnel mines (AP NM-14 and AP NM-16) and two types of antivehicle mines (AT ND 1A and AT ND 4D), as well as the APER 1B mine (a type unknown to the Monitor).[7]

In August 2016, India reaffirmed that it has had a formal export moratorium of unlimited duration in place since May 1996.[8] It has previously stated that it favors an outright ban on transfer of antipersonnel mines even to States Parties of CCW Amended Protocol II.[9] However, in February 2017, a private Indian arms manufacturer had components for bounding fragmentation antipersonnel landmines listed within their sales catalogue on display at the IDEX military trade event in Abu Dhabi.[10] Five Mine Ban Treaty States Parties have reported Indian-made mines in their stockpiles: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mauritius, Sudan, and Tanzania. India has previously denied that any transfer of mines to these countries took place.[11]

In 1999, the Monitor estimated that India stockpiled between four and five million antipersonnel mines, one of the world’s largest stockpiles.[12] India has neither confirmed nor denied this estimate. In March 2008, Brigadier Vijay Sharma, former Deputy Director of the Directorate of Military Operations, stated that India does not possess mines that can detonate in the presence of mine detectors and does not possess—nor is it designing—any mine with antihandling characteristics.[13] However, Indian Ordnance Factory produces a non-detectable antivehicle mine with an “anti-removal” fuze.[14] An address by a military commander to army sappers (engineers), reported by the press in September 2010, stated, “After India became a signatory to a UN convention on landmine [sic], we are compulsorily putting a steel rod measuring a few inches in each mine so that it can be detected during demining operations.”[15]

Use

Government

India’s last major use of antipersonnel mines took place between December 2001 and July 2002, when the Indian Army deployed an estimated two million mines along its northern and western border with Pakistan in Operation Parakram.[16] This was probably the most extensive use of antipersonnel mines anywhere in the world since the Mine Ban Treaty was negotiated and first signed in 1997.

In April 2010, in response to a Right to Information Act (RTI) request, India stated that the army had not laid any mines during 2008 or 2009.[17] Officials did not respond to a later RTI request. Indian officials have also previously stated on many occasions that “There is no minefield or mined area in any part of India’s interiors” but have acknowledged that “minefields are laid, if required, along the border areas as part of military operations.”[18] However, in previous years, injuries from mines planted near military bases within Jammu and Kashmir state were reported.[19] Deaths and injuries by both military personnel and civilians near the Line of Control (LoC) are reported regularly by the press.[20]

Some Indian Army officials have said that infiltration of Kashmiri militants across the LoC between Pakistani- and Indian-administered sections of Kashmir is the main rationale for mines laid along the LoC, as well as the international border.[21] The Monitor has previously reported mine use in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir.[22] Civilians continued to be killed and injured by mines in Kashmir in 2016 and early 2017 (see Casualties section).

Non-state armed groups

In July 2017, the Deputy Inspector General of Police in Chhatisgarh state informed the state news agency that “Pressure IEDs [improvised explosive devices] planted randomly inside the forests in unpredictable places, where frequent de-mining operations are not feasible, remain a challenge.”[23] The use of these victim activated improvised mines was attributed by the police to the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M) and its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army.[24] In September 2017, an elephant was killed after it stepped on a landmine attributed to the CPI-M in Jharkhand state.[25] In May 2017, India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) recovered a cache of 53 landmines, with 500 grams of explosive, in Jharkhand state. In December 2016, the CRPF recovered a cache of 120 landmines, with between 800–1,000 grams of explosive, also in Jharkhand state.[26]

Previous Landmine Monitor reports have documented widespread use by the CPI-M of command-detonated IEDs.[27] These were frequently reported as “landmines” in the media and specialized reports on the conflict, but it has not always been possible to determine the mechanism of explosive devices from news reports.[28] Indian authorities regularly report to have discovered explosive material from armed groups.[29] Maoist cadres have deployed large numbers of command-detonated roadside bombs, some of which have caused civilian deaths.[30]

In a previous response to an RTI request by the Landmine Monitor regarding landmine use by non-state armed groups (NSAGs), a Ministry of Home Affairs official, referring to the NSAG Naxal, wrote, “The naxal affected area are prone to IEDs planted by naxal operation.” He further noted that “detection and disposal of IEDs is carried out by the state police/Central Armed Police Forces allotted to the affected states. Army units have not been tasked to deal with Naxal-related problem.”[31]

In 2016 and 2017, there were no allegations of landmine use by insurgents in the northeastern states of India or in Jammu & Kashmir state. No NSAGs have declared a ban on mine use in recent years.[32]

Contamination

The Republic of India is contaminated with mines, mainly as a result of large-scale mine-laying by government forces on and near the Line of Control (LoC) separating India and Pakistan during the 1971 war and the 2001–2002 stand-off between the two states. Antipersonnel and antivehicle mines were laid on cultivated land and pasture, as well as around infrastructure and a number of villages.

Despite occasional official claims that all the mines laid were subsequently cleared, reports of contamination and casualties have persisted. A media report in 2013 cited a government statement that about 20km² of irrigated land was still mined in the Akhnoor sector of the LoC alone.[1] Security forces also have reported extensive use of mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by Maoist insurgents in the northeastern states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, although mine types usually are not specified and may include command-detonated as well as victim-activated explosive devices.[2] A media report in October 2016 also alleged that the Indian military had threatened to lay mines along the Punjab border with Pakistan, after clashes and increasing tensions in the region.[3]

In July 2017, according to a media account, the Indian army was manually clearing mines in the border districts of Jammu and Kashmir and was procuring more advanced demining equipment with a view to of improving safety and decreasing the number of deminer casualties.[4] In June 2016, India’s NDTV news reported that the Indian army was demining areas of the LoC in Rajouri district, Kashmir, in order to return land to communities for agricultural use as it vacated fields near the border that were reportedly taken over and mined during the Kargil Conflict in 1999 and Operation Parakaram in 2001.[5]

In May 2016, a large forest fire which broke out on the Pakistani side of the LoC spread through Balakote sector of Poonch district was reported to have triggered mine detonations, with eight mine explosions reported, according to a senior police officer.[6] In 2016–2017, a number of landmine incidents continued to be reported, primarily involving Indian army personnel, but also civilians. (See India’s casualty profile for details.)

Program Management

India has no civilian mine action program. The Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for clearing mines, as well as IEDs, placed by non-state armed groups.[7] Media reports have indicated police also play an active part in clearing mines and IEDs on an ad hoc basis in states dealing with insurgency.[8]

Land Release

There is no publicly available official information on land release in 2016, as in the previous year.

India has not reported that any mine clearance has occurred in its Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Amended Protocol II Article 13 transparency reports since 2006.[9] In August 2016, India stated that “mines used for military operations were laid within fenced and marked perimeters and were cleared after operations.”[10]

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the mine action research in 2017, including on survey and clearance, and shared all its resulting landmine and cluster munition reports with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.

Casualties Overview

In 2016, the Monitor identified 79 casualties from mines, including improvised mines (victim activated improvised explosive devices, IEDs) and other ERW in the Republic of India.[1] Of the total casualties for which the sex were known, 63 were male and nine were female, including five girls.[2] Of the total, there were 23 civilian casualties and 56 military personnel. Fifteen mine/ERW casualties occurred in the region of Jammu and Kashmir.

The 79 mine/ERW casualties identified in 2016 represented a massive increase from the seven casualties in 2015.[3] Such fluctuations in annual casualty figures are not necessarily indicative of trends, since India lacks a systematic data collection system, however significantly more casualties of “pressure mines” or improvised mines were reported in media in 2016.

The cumulative number of casualties in India is not known. Between 1999 and 2016, the Monitor identified 3,730 mine, improvised mine, and ERW casualties in India (1,091 killed; 2,638 injured; 1 unknown).

Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2015, the Monitor identified seven casualties from mines and other ERW in the Republic of India. Of the total casualties for which the age and sex were known,[1] five were men and one was a boy. There were six civilian casualties, including one child casualty. All incidents occurred in the region of Jammu and Kashmir.[2]

The seven mine/ERW casualties identified in 2015 represented a decrease from the 18 casualties in 2014, 23 casualties in 2013, 78 casualties in 2012, 51 casualties in 2011, and 26 casualties recorded in 2010. Such fluctuations in annual casualty figures are not necessarily indicative of trends and can be attributed to the challenges in collecting consistent and accurate data from media and local sources, since India lacks a systematic data collection system.

The cumulative number of casualties in India is not known. Between 1999 and 2015, the Monitor identified 3,191 victim-activated mine/improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and ERW casualties in India (1,083 killed; 2,107 injured; 1 unknown). Nearly half of these casualties were civilians.

Victim Assistance

The total number of survivors is unknown, but at least 2,107 people were injured through the end of 2015.

Assessing victim assistance needs

In early 2015, Handicap International (HI) carried out a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) survey regarding risks surrounding mines/ERW and IEDs in four districts of Jammu and Kashmir. The survey focused on risk education, but also identified an apparently high prevalence of disability in border areas that required further investigation.[3]

Victim assistance coordination

India does not have any specific coordination mechanisms or national plans for mine/ERW victim assistance.

The MSJE coordinated the Indian physical rehabilitation sector. A new Department of Disability Affairs within the MSJE began operation in May 2012. Its role is to facilitate the empowerment of all persons with disabilities, to regulate physical rehabilitation services and various disability funds, as well as to develop and implement India’s legal framework as it relates to physical disability.[4]

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities bill was finalized in 2014 and began the parliamentary process for adoption.[5] The history of the bill process began with a draft proposal in 2011 following consultations with persons with disabilities and disabled people’s organizations (DPOs). The second draft was notified by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2012. However, that draft was opposed in part by several key stakeholders. Disability rights actors united against the third draft of bill, of 2013, which was believed to contain violations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).[6] In February 2014, the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2014 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the parliament of India, to replace the Persons with Disabilities Act (1995). The Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment of the Rajya Sabha submitted its report on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014 on 7 May 2015.[7] As of May 2016, the bill had not yet been passed.

At the Mine Ban Treaty Third Review Conference in Maputo in 2014, India stated that “Mine victims are also assisted in rehabilitation through the provision of financial compensation, employment and health assistance. India’s ratification of the CRPD underscores the importance that we attach to victim assistance.”[8]

India stated that its 2007 ratification of the CRPD underscores the importance it attaches to victim assistance.[9] India did not submit a Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Amended Protocol II Article 13 report nor a Protocol V Article 10 report for the period from April 2015 to March 2016. Its April 2014 to March 2015 report did not include details of victim assistance provided, and India noted that the situation had remained unchanged since 2006.[10] In the April 2014 to March 2015 CCW Protocol V Article 10 report, India stated that reporting on the protection of the civilian population from the effects of ERW was not applicable for India.[11]

Survivor inclusion

Associations of mine survivors were included in the consultative process to in initial draft of the national Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill (2011).[12]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[13]

Budget shortfalls forced the suspension of programs by the ICRC SFD in India in 2014. The ICRC took over support for SFD programs.[14] In 2015, the ICRC continued to provide support for six rehabilitation centers including the Artificial Limb Centre at the Bone and Joint Hospital, Srinagar; the Artificial Limb Centre at the Governmental Medical College, Jammu; and the Voluntary Medicare Society in Jammu and Kashmir. These ICRC-supported centers assisted 15 mine/ERW survivors to obtain prosthetic limbs in 2015, a decrease compared to 26 in 2014 and 64 survivors in 2013.[15] However, this continues to represent a significant increase in contrast with the period 2000 to 2010, when just 95 survivors were served during the entire period.

The government has stated at international meetings that mine survivors and families of those killed by mines are entitled to compensation.[16] Monetary compensation to landmine survivors and family members of people killed is distributed by the Ministry of Defence under a 2006 decree. However, many survivors have not been successful in applying for compensation.[17]

The standard one-time compensation payment from the government is the equivalent of US$1,500, which is inadequate to cover treatment and the future needs of survivors.[18] To pay for medical expenses, families often have to borrow money or sell their land or livestock, resulting in worsening economic situations overall.[19]

Psychosocial support for survivors continued to be limited. MSF provided mental health and psychosocial care, particularly for conflict and weapons victims at five fixed locations in Srinagar and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Teams also visited victims of violence in Srinagar hospitals and provided psychological first aid, thereby ensuring basic psychological, social, and material needs were being met.[20]

India’s Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 protects the rights of persons with disabilities. However, discrimination in employment, education, and access to healthcare remained pervasive, especially in rural areas. Legislation requires that all public buildings and transportation be accessible for persons with disabilities, although accessibility remained limited.[21]

India ratified the CRPD on 1 October 2007.