A news article published in The Indian Express states that a committee in the parliament has expressed its concern over the fact that in India, only 3.68 percent of women are a part of the CAPFs or in other terms Central Armed Police Forces. The committee has raised its concern that immediately something needs to be done about this fact so that more women feel the urge to join the police forces. In fact, the report reads that the participation of women in the armed forces is much lower compared to the rest of the world’s standings.
The committee has also stated that during the year 2016, the government passed a decision that it is going to reserve a minimum of thirty-three percent of the quota for women in the armed forces. But it has failed to fill in the vacancies till now. The committee has urged the government to look into this matter immediately. There is yet a vacancy to be filled in for the women in the different posts of constables in ITBP, SSB, and the BSF. The committee has shown great disappointment with the fact that such a low percentage of women are a part of the armed forces.
The report also states that the home ministry had already made great efforts all throughout the year to increase the participation of women in the CAPFs including the Assam Rifles. Yet the data had remained dangerously low and had failed to show any improvement in the number of women participants. In an appeal to the government, the committee has requested the Home Ministry to take notice of the matter and get to the cause that leads to such a lower number f participation from women. It further requested that a practical solution to this issue may be brought forward so that it would encourage more women to be a part.
In the report, the committee has further suggested that in order to make more women join the forces, may the postings of them be closer to their hometowns. Doing so may improve the scope of more participation from women. The committee has made research and has found that at present a period of up to seventy-five days of leave is at present granted to the field personnel. It has requested to increase this leave to a hundred days making it more convenient for the women. The committee states that if the Home Ministry takes prompt action on this proposal and put it into use, this might have an effect. It shall not only put a little ease on the current women jawans who are serving but also encourage a fresh batch of female jawans to enroll as well.
The committee also stated that currently, the jawans are not getting enough benefits compared to their work structure and postings in areas that have difficult conditions of climate. This might be working as a demotivating factor for news applications for rolling in. It further states that the level of job stress needs to be lowered along with allotting frequent leaves to the jawans for meeting their families.
The panel has also stated that the Home Ministry has been looking at each of these aspects very closely for some time now. It is making every deliberate attempt in improving this job profile so that more women participation comes in and fills in these vacancies. The proposal states that the earlier such permissions be granted, the better it would be in leaving a positive effect. It is indeed a matter of concern and immediately requires prompt action to be taken, the report stated at the closing.