Tarn Taran girl leads contingent at ITBP passing-out parade

For the first time ever,a woman led a passing-out parade of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force at the Basic Training Centre,Bhanu,today.

For the first time ever,a woman led a passing-out parade of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force at the Basic Training Centre (BTC),Bhanu,today. Twenty-year-old Gurjeet Kaur,who comes from a farmers family of Tarn Taran district,Punjab,led the contingent of 390 recruits,including 61 women,who joined ITBP as constables after 44 weeks of training.

I always wanted to don the uniform. Today,with my induction,my parents are proud of me, said Gurjeet. She was also awarded for topping the weapon module of the training. Her first posting is at BTC,Panchkula. It was a great learning experience. I have now learnt to use all the light weapons, she said. Manju Rani (21) from Bhiwani district,Haryana,was adjudged the best recruit. We were ordinary girls from villages. But now we are jawans, she exclaimed. Manju too hails from a farmers family and has been posted in Arunachal Pradesh.

In this batch,we have trained boys and girls together for the first time. Both went through the same rigorous training and no relaxation of any kind was given to any girl recruit, informed Deputy Inspector General (BTC) H S Goraya.

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ITBPs first mahila batallion was raised in 2010 at BTC and there are now four companies of women in the force. In the next five years,women will form 5 per cent of our total force, said ITBP Director General R K Bhatia.

Women are deputed for security duty but are not yet given sensitive duties in ITBP,which guards 3,488 km of the Sino-Indian border. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was the first paramilitary force in the country to raise a womens batallion and Border Security Force (BSF),Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) later followed suit.

Meanwhile,the pre-set batch that was inducted in ITBP today also went through the DIG Banner,a module introduced for the first time for the trainees personality development and to instill in them the competitive spirit. It included games,declamation,quiz competitions and general awareness sessions.

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