NEW DELHI: Not just paramilitary jawans, even cadre officers face hardships and stagnation and are denied basic facilities such as pension and time-bound promotion besides being stressed due to service conditions.
Studies by institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis have underscored these factors.
On an average, an Assistant Commandant is promoted after 15 years of service and is not granted non-functional upgradation (financial benefits minus promotion if the posts are not available). In the civilian side, promotion is assured after eight years, and if posts are not available, their positions are upgraded and they get all financial benefits. A constable may take 20 years to get the first promotion.
The IIM’s study on ‘Emotional Intelligence and Occupational Stress in BSF and CRPF’ has highlighted high salary discrepancy, difficulties due to unpaid medical claims and lack of career progression for jawans. For cadre officers, the report noted they face lack of identity, continuous posting in hard areas, lack of authority and training opportunities, leading to demotivation and burnout and psychological complications.
“The cadre officials of the paramilitary forces, including BSF, CRPF, ITBP, Sasashtra Seema Bal and CISF cannot even form associations and have been denied a basic grievance redressal mechanism for decades now. Their grievances are left unheard as IPS officers, who are at the top of the organisational hierarchy, ignore their demands and the government remains oblivious to their problems,” said VPS Panwar, retired Inspector General and chairman of National Co-ordination Committee of Ex-CPMFs Personnel Welfare Associations.
The paramilitary personnel do not enjoy the facility of service pay, field area allowance, high altitude allowance, free ration, disability pension, separated family accommodation, rehabilitation after treatment and CSD facility, etc. “A Colonel upwards retires at 54 to 62 years of age. For personnel below officer level, the retirement age ranges from 35 to 54 years, and reemployment is almost guaranteed,” Panwar added.
Petitions seeking benefits such as “organised service” status and non-functional upgradation have been upheld by the Delhi High Court, but the Ministry of Home Affairs challenged it in the Supreme Court last year. The IPS Association has also impleaded itself in the pending case in the apex court.NEW DELHI: