DANTEWADA: In keeping with her commando training of being tough and never giving up in the face of difficulty, a six months pregnant Sunaina Patel continued to serve with an elite police unit that conducts anti-Naxal operations.
Woman commando Sunaina Patel continued to patrol the Naxal-infested jungles, carrying a full load of weapons, that includes an AK-47 and a backpack weighing 8-10 kg, even when she was almost six months pregnant.
She is part of the elite District Reserve Guard Danteshwari Fighters, deployed in one of the worst Maoist-affected areas of Chhattisgarh.
This International Women's Day Patel's story is one of the most inspiring. She only decided to take it easy when her senior asked her to take rest in view of her advanced stage of pregnancy. "I was 2-months pregnant when I joined the unit. I performed all my duties with sincerely. But now have been asked by my seniors to take proper rest," Patel told ANI.
"Today also if I'm asked I'll do it with utmost sincerity," she said. Patel is now eight months pregnant and is working in a comparatively relaxed atmosphere.
Sunaina Patel has also played the lead in the Police commissioned short film' Nai Subah Ka Suraj'.
When officials got to know about her pregnancy, they immediately stopped sending her to field operations and advised her to take proper rest. Speaking to ANI, Abhishek Pallav, SP Dantewada, said, "Sunaina had suffered a miscarriage once while she was on duty. Even now she was reluctant to go off duty but we have asked her to take adequate rest as we are concerned about her health," Pallav said.
On her contribution to the unit, the SP said, "She has motivated many women to join the anti-Naxal force since she has become a commando."
In May last year, a team of women DRG was constituted and Sunaina inducted into the elite anti-Naxal unit. Dantewada is the only district in the state with a team of women DRGs who perform regular jungle patrols against the Maoist cadres.