NEW DELHI: With an aim to further enhance the participation of women in paramilitary, the government has worked out a plan to recruit 4,138 lady personnel in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles in 2025, as the BSF is going to have maximum share of 2,419, followed by the CISF (818) and the ITBP (456), officials said on Saturday.
As per the plan, the officials said, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) will get 242 women personnel, and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) is going to recruit 103 lady personnel.
The Assam Rifles (AR), which is deployed along the India-Myanmar border and is under operational control of the Indian Army, will recruit 100 women officials.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in an official statement said, “It is a constant endeavour of the ministry to increase the number of women in CAPFs. It is noteworthy that the number of women in CAPFs has gone up from 15,499 in 2014 to 42,190 in 2024.”
However, the total percentage of women in CAPFs and AR is close to 4 percent only of the total strength of the CAPFs. The highest is CISF, which has more than 7 per cent of women in the force, and the worst is CRPF with 3.38 percent of women in the force.
Meanwhile, to understand the physical and mental well-being of women in the force, the CRPF has recently conducted a special study to help the armed organisation assign larger and more diverse roles to them, particularly in forward and operational areas, sources said.
Quoting an official communication, the sources said, a set of questions was drafted, covering topics related to personal life, professional life, and work-life balance.
“The aim is to understand the mental health of women to identify if they are facing personal or professional issues,” a source said.
“We have drafted three sets of questions that address both professional and personal issues. Questions such as whether they get enough time with family or their spouse, and the challenges they face in maintaining work-life balance, were asked. We have received responses from women deployed in various parts of the country, including remote areas and metropolitan cities," the source said, adding that those personnel, who were on leave, were also covered under the study.
It is to be noted here that recently, the CRPF has also introduced new SOPs aimed at curbing deaths by suicide and fratricide, as these mandate unit commanders to maintain a record of jawans’ personal problems and update them regularly after conducting interviews with the personnel.