Women Deployed On Combat Duty Near LoC By Indian Army, For The First Time

For the first time in history, Indian Army has deployed female soldiers for internal security and combat duties near the line of control with Pakistan, reports TOI.

The women platoon is from paramilitary force Assam Rifles and has been stationed in the Tangdhar sector of north Kashmir.

These 30 woman soldiers are led by Captain Gursimran Kaur of the Army Service Corps (ASC), who is a third-generation military officer of her family.

Zee News

¡°Deployed at security checkpoints leading to the LoC, the women soldiers are also being used for crowd control and frisking of women because there are intelligence inputs of weapons and drugs being smuggled across,¡± TOI quoted the officer as saying.

The Indian Army has been recruiting women in small numbers but only as officers till now. Women are also not a part of ¡®fighting arms¡¯ of infantry, armoured corps, mechanised infantry and artillery.

It was only in 2019 that the Army began the recruitment of the first lot of around 50 women as jawans or soldiers in the Corps of Military Police (CMP), who are under training at present.

Incredible! Indian Army Riflewomen deployed for the first time along Line of Control between India and Pakistan in Jammu & Kashmir. Proud to share this on Rakshabandhan! Here are the brave women soldiers protecting us all! Respect! pic.twitter.com/ZNUxJPQk4u

¡ª Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) August 3, 2020

According to the report, the army plans to induct around 800 women in the military police, with a yearly intake of over 50 personnel, to assist in probing criminal cases like rapes and molestations, as well as preserving ¡®good order and discipline¡¯ in military formations.

¡°A need was also felt for women soldiers in forward locations for frisking and other duties. Women police personnel are not always available in such areas. Till the women in CMP actually join service, we are using women soldiers of Assam Rifles for such duties,¡± the officer reportedly said.

Sometime ago, in a move towards inclusion, the Tripura government decided to recruit women in the Tripura State Rifles (TSR), its own paramilitary force, for the first time.

Representational Image/Purushottham Diwakar

This comes two years after a 10% quota was introduced for them in the force. On July 7, the state cabinet approved 1,488 posts for the paramilitary force.

Before that, in another major move towards inclusion of the members of the transgender community into mainstream workforce, officials of the Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), told the Union home ministry that they will recruit transgender persons to the officer cadre post of assistant commandants.

The Indian Army and paramilitary forces are taking steps towards equality in forces and it is applaud worthy.