What percentage of CAPF personnel are women, and why is the number so low?

How many women serve in these forces, and how have their numbers changed over the years? Besides the CAPFs, what efforts have been made to increase the number of women personnel in the police forces of states and Union Territories?

First, what is the current strength of women in the CAPFs?

Women make up 4.4% of the 9.48 lakh-strong CAPFs, including the Assam Rifles. The CISF, which guards public spaces such as airports, the Delhi Metro, and important government buildings such as the Parliament Complex, has the highest representation of women – 7.02% of the total force strength of around 1.51 lakh – Rai told Lok Sabha.

The representation of women in the other forces is lower – 4.43% in SSB, 4.41% in BSF, 4.05% in ITBP, 4.01% in the Assam Rifles, and 3.38% in the CRPF, according to figures presented by the minister in the House.

“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. 835 women personnel have been recruited in CAPF and Assam Rifles in 2024, while 5,469 are in the process of recruitment,” he said.

Another 4,138 women are likely to be recruited in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles in 2025, Rai added.

How have the efforts to recruit women in CAPFs progressed so far?

In 2016, the central government decided to reserve a third of all constable-level positions in the CRPF and CISF for women, and 14-15% in the border guarding forces — the BSF, SSB, and ITBP.

However, recruitment failed to keep pace with the policy, and in 2022, the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs expressed disappointment over the “abysmally low” number of women CAPF personnel. Women constituted only 3.68% of the strength of the forces at the time.

“The committee is disappointed to note that women constitute only 3.68% of the total strength of CAPFs. Despite efforts of the Home Ministry to encourage the recruitment of women in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles, the strength of women is abysmally low,” the report of the Committee led by the BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Brij Lal said.

So what did the Committee recommend the government should do?

The Committee asked the Home Ministry to take concrete steps to increase the representation of women in CAPFs. Phase-wise recruitment drives for women should be put on fast track, particularly in the CISF and CRPF, and steps should be taken to create a conducive environment in the border outposts so that the women are motivated to join security forces, it said.

The report, which was tabled in Rajya Sabha in 2022, also recommended that the Ministry should strive to identify the factors preventing women from joining the forces, and to come up with practical solutions to encourage their participation.

What happened after that?

Last year, another parliamentary committee, the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, suggested “soft postings” for women in order to incentivise them to join the CAPFs.

“A major constraint that prevents women from joining forces is the difficult terrains and conditions in which they might have to work. So, a policy may be explored for women officers being given soft postings and not subjecting them to extremely strenuous and difficult working conditions, unless required in extreme circumstances like war, armed rebellion etc and that too when there is absolute shortage of males who can be deployed by the forces,” the Committee, which submitted its report to Rajya Sabha on August 3, 2023, said.

The Committee, headed by the late BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi, said the representation of women personnel in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles was 3.76% as on September 30, 2022.

In February 2024, Rai told Lok Sabha in a written reply that the government had taken several steps to encourage women to join the CAPFs and Assam Rifles, including application fee waivers and relaxations in the Physical Standard Test (PST) and Physical Efficiency Test(PET) in comparison to male candidates.

Also, Rai said, central government facilities such as Maternity Leave and Child Care Leave were also applicable to CAPFs, creches and Day Care Centres had been provided by the CAPFs to women employees, and committees had been constituted at all levels to check sexual harassment and to expeditiously deal with the complaints of women personnel.

Women personnel were given equal opportunity in their career progression as their male counterparts, the government said.