India will have its first ever tribal paramilitary battalion soon and 33 per cent recruits of the troops will mandatorily be women. Home Minister Rajnath Singh held a high-level meeting on Tuesday to review the performance of the Central Armed Police Forces where he was told about the tribal battalion being raised by the CRPF.
Young girls and boys from south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh are being recruited in the unique paramilitary composite tribal battalion, said senior officers. The battalion will be ready for training in April next year.
Promoting the youth of Bastar.. CRPF Trains Tribal Men, Women For Bastariya Battalion..https://t.co/nncpl98eBf
— 🇮🇳CRPF🇮🇳 (@crpfindia) October 11, 2016
The recruitment is still going on for it and might go on until mid-January.
“The recruits will be joining in April 2017 for basic training. This is the first recruitment process in which the CRPF has implemented 33 per cent reservation at constable level recruitment for females,” an official statement said, reported by Indian Express.
CRPF trains tribal men/women for Bastaria Battalion https://t.co/jULtZRWiEi https://t.co/50HuQiBP3V
— Security and Forces Update (@forcesrange) October 11, 2016
The women are being recruited at the constable level by the CRPF. The decision to form this full-fledged tribal battalion met with protest from civilians but the CRPF went ahead and approved it in November.
The CRPF had initially called for applications for physical test which was cleared by 795 applicants. Then it conducted a written exam in the insurgency-hit Narayanpur district about a month ago. Out of the 795 who cleared the physical, 790 appeared for the written test.
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The Central government has also launched the digitisation campaign on cashless transactions for the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) personnel i.e CRPF, BSF, SSB, ITBP, CISF, NSG and Assam Rifles.
Picture credit- India TV