NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand is a mountain state, and hills-people are known for their chivalry—though not for being tall. So the Union government has reduced the minimum height requirements to join the ranks of paramilitary forces for the candidates from Uttarakhand—the Garhwalis, Kumaonese, Gorkhas and Dogras who have for long proven their warrior skills.
The Home Ministry has already issued a new scheme reducing the minimum height requirements, says Satpal Maharaj, a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha and Chairman Standing Committee on Defence.
The new scheme stipulates 165 cm as the minimum height of male candidates in the categories of Garhwalis, Kumaonese, Gorkhas and Dogras. It is 155 cm for females. “The move will provide an impetus to the recruitment of unemployed youth in the Hilly area of Uttarakhand state,” Maharaj told The Sunday Standard.
These four categories are known for their fighting skills within the armed forces. In fact the Indian Army has got separate Garhwal, Kumaon, Gorkha and Dogra regiments.
The new stipulations will open more opportunity also for women in forces—like Border Security Forces and Indo-Tibetan Border Police. The BSF in 2009 had sanctioned 700 posts for women. Last year, the force raised an all-women battalion, making them the first females to guard the country’s international borders along Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Their non-combat role will include security at the fenced border gates, frisking of women going across the fence and facilitating spectators at the retreat ceremony at the Attari-Wagah border near Amritsar in Punjab.
