Towards Equal Opportunity: ITBP Deploys Women Personnel At India-China Border For The First Time

In a first such move, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has deployed at least 100 women personnel at 15 border outposts along the India-China frontier that runs through the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Announcing the deployment, ITBP Director General Krishna Chaudhary informed that the force had commissioned 500 women troops earlier this year for deployment at India-China border in its constabulary ranks after training them for 44 weeks.

The announcement marked the 55th Raising Day of the police force, commissioned in 1962 to secure India’s 3,488-km long mountainous borders with Tibet and China. Trained in war craft and weapon firing, women troops have been posted after the border outposts were made “gender neutral” and facilities were created to meet their needs while on duty at forward bases.

While most women personnel have been sent to the border outposts in the Ladakh frontier of Jammu and Kashmir, few have also been posted at other locations in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. It was told that more women personnel, up to 40 per cent of the total strength, will be deployed at forward bases and border posts in the coming years.

Women were first inducted into the ITBP in 2008 but were deployed only for rendering law and order duties in troubled areas. According to the Indian Express, the force currently has 1,661 women personnel in its various ranks and branches of work with the maximum number of 1,033 being in the constabulary ranks.