NEW DELHI: A provision meant to support the families of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel killed in the line of duty — providing jobs on compassionate grounds to the next of the kin — has seen a gradual decline over the years, according to the Home Ministry.
Of the total 1,209 people, who sought jobs on compassionate grounds in 2019, only about 32% or 390 persons, could get jobs in paramilitary forces.
In 2018, 1,291 people of such families sought jobs of which 630 applicants managed to join the forces.
In 2017, the percentage of successful applicants under this category was even higher at 49.31%. That year, 1,176 dependents of the deceased applied for jobs and almost half of them were given jobs.
2017 also recorded maximum casualties in the CAPFs in the last three years. As many as 1510 soldiers of central police forces were killed in action in 2017.
In the succeeding year, 1240 deaths of CAPFs were reported whereas in 2019, 1382 personnel were killed. A total of 4132 CAPF soldiers have been killed on duty in the last three years from 2017-2019.
In the past, family members of the deceased have staged protests demanding an increase in proportion of jobs given to the affected families.
The CAPFs comprise of CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB, and AR. Among all CAPFs, CRPF, which is deployed for anti-terrorist and anti-Maoist operations lost almost 1,597 men over three years followed by BSF which lost 725 personnel and CISF lost 671 personnel during 2017-2019.
The casualties in ITBP, AR and SSB stood at 429, 381 and 329 in the last 3 years.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai shared statistics in the Parliament on the issue last week while responding to questions posed by his party colleague Pratima Bhoumik.