New Delhi: To ensure better working
conditions for women in armed police forces, the Government
has come out with a fresh set of guidelines for deployment of
such personnel in BSF, SSB and ITBP by posting them at border
posts close to their hometowns.
The new guidelines also mandate that if a woman
personnel is married, she should be stationed at the same
place where her husband is posted provided he too is a
government employee.
"In order to ensure better working conditions for
these women personnel it has been decided to post them closer
to their families and hometowns. By this arrangement it is
expected that the family members can visit their child without
travelling very far," a senior para-military officer said.
The government, meanwhile, is also planning to recruit
an additional 20,000 armed women personnel to these forces and
others like CRPF and CISF, in the next three years after a
women contingent was commissioned in the Border Security Force
(BSF) in 2008.
Subsequently, forces like the Sashastra Seema Bal
(SSB) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) too inducted
almost 1,000 women for guarding their respective borders --
Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan for SSB and the Sino-Indian
frontier for the ITBP.
The new guidelines mandate that the newly recruited
women personnel shall be posted to the units or frontiers
close to their hometowns. However, it adds that they can be
posted to any location subject to "administrative and
operational requirements."
"The government instructions on keeping husband and
wife, if both are government servants, at the same station
shall be kept in view, as far as possible. However, if it is
not possible to accommodate them at the same place, posting to
places which can be covered by overnight journey may be
considered," the new guidelines state.
The new recruits in these border guarding forces are
under the age of 23 years and have been trained in skills of
armed and un-armed combat including undertaking tough
operational duties like border patrolling and weapon firing.
These women are currently deployed for general guard
duties, frisking suspects and for performing other normal
policing activities undertaken by their male counterparts.
According to a new plan formulated by the Union Home
Ministry, the other paramilitary forces apart from the
border guarding forces will essentially have 5 per cent of
their total force strength as women personnel in three to five
years and 10 per cent in the subsequent five years.
The CRPF was the first central force to have inducted
women personnel in its combat ranks. The force presently has
two operational battalions (2,000 women) while the third
(around 1,000 personnel) is being raised currently.
The total strength of CRPF is about 3 lakh personnel,
making it the country`s largest paramilitary force.
PTI
