Ground breaking: Indian women get reservation in paramilitary forces

Indian government has recently announced 33% reservation for women in the paramilitary forces. This reservation is approved at the constable level in two central paramilitary forces Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The announcement was done by the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh on Tuesday.

The government has also agreed to set a 15% quota in the border forces Border Security Force (BSF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

“With a view to enhance representation of women in central armed police forces, home minister Rajnath Singh has approved 33% posts at constable level for being filled up by women,” a home ministry statement said, reported TOI.

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The move has been taken after the committee on empowerment of women in its sixth report said that representation of women in the paramilitary forces is dismal. The CRPF, which is considered to be the world’s largest force, has only 6,300 women in it. And all the forces combined have about nine lakh troops of which only 20,000 are women, according to IBTimes.

Reserving some percentage for women will definitely change these numbers to represent slight gender parity. The reservation is going to be done horizontally which means that from constable to sub-inspector level; all the posts will have women recruited. This is done to attract more number of women in the forces.

Last year government had also given a green signal for women to be fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force. Also, the NCC is sending it’s cadets on a trek to the Mount Everest to empower women in the troop and to celebrate the reception of more women into all the paramilitary forces.

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The government is becoming more and more sensitized towards women who constitute the equal amount of population as men. This will prove to be more fruitful in terms of gender parity, economic growth of the country and female empowerment as well.

Picture Credit- Buzzoop