NEW DELHI, APRIL 6: The first batch of women soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) is facing the usual problem - the added responsibility of motherhood and due to the increased dislocations in their work, their familial ties suffer. The authorities, on the other hand, are ruling out the option of pre-mature retirement for them in view of the acute man-power constrains on this most mobile police force of the country."We had visualised this problem at the conception of the first Mahila battalion (in 1988) and it was expected that a scheme to phase them out on the pattern of Army jawans would be implemented," a senior officer of the Forces told The Indian Express. "But today, we are so over-stretched in the law and order chaos prevailing across the country that sparing them (women soldiers) in bulk seems impossible."The CRPF with three mahila battalions boasts itself as the first para-military force in the world to induct women as active warriors in such large numbers. There are about15 women officers in the force today.The women too have done the force proud. "Our girls have never complained - right from their training days up to the battle fields where they follow the same rigorous schedules and duties as their male counterparts," said M N Sabharwal, Director general of CRPF. The women are deployed in anti-insurgency operations, UN peace keeping operations, riot situations and even handle machine-guns. A lady soldier of the CRPF was even awarded the "Sena medal" for the IPKF operations.However, ten years hence most of these young women have got married and are yearning for some kind of normal life which is becoming impossible with the ever-increasing pressure on the force. As about 78 per cent of the force is deployed in militancy-infested Jammu and Kashmir and North-East and rest in the trouble spot coming up all over the country, authorities say it has almost lost its "reserve" character.The CRPF men have named their force Chalte Raho Pyare Force and rightly so as asenior officer says, "We hardly get any breather."The Home Ministry authorities say they are seized by the nearly unbearable pressure on the force but confess that the ever-deteriorating internal security situation hardly enables them to even think about it. Sabharwal said, "We are certainly over-worked but I suppose we all have to work in a particular context - if there is demand for more CRPF from all over we cannot shirk."Sabharwal says the demand for the CRPF men to control law and order situations was overwhelming as "the force in its 60 years of existence has emerged as the most adaptable of all the police forces in the country".Long back, the Home ministry had decided to raise 20 more battalions of the force to ease the life of existing CRPF jawans. But today no-one seems even to be talking about it and fund scarcity always comes as the main constraint.Sabharwal confesses that his men have no time to train themselves and the women troops face a realistic problem due to increased work load.He says eventually the package of pre-mature retirement has to be offered to the force-women although the chances appear distant.
