46,930 CAPFs, Assam Rifles personnel availed VRS in last five years: MHA

More than 46,000 personnel from the five CAPFs and the Assam Rifles took early retirement during the past five years, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday.

The maximum -- at more than 21,000 men and women -- of the personnel who took early retirement were from the Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the Pakistan and Bangladesh borders.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that voluntary retirement cases in these forces "vary from year to year and no trend in this regard has been observed".

According to the data provided by the minister, 46,930 personnel from the five Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and the Assam Rifles took up the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) between 2019 and 2023, with the maximum being from the BSF at 21,860.

The BSF, tasked primarily with guarding the Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh, apart from rendering other internal security duties, has a strength of about 2.65 lakh.

This was followed by 12,893 personnel in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) -- the country's largest CAPF -- opting for VRS.

With about 3.25 lakh personnel, the CRPF is deployed in the three main theatres of anti-Naxal operations, counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir and counter-insurgency operations in the northeast.

A total 5,146 Assam Rifles personnel took VRS during the same time, apart from 3,012 from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), 2,281 from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and 1,738 from the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

The Assam Rifles guards the India-Myanmar border, the CISF is tasked with securing critical infrastructure such as civil airports, nuclear and aerospace facilities, the SSB guards open Indian fronts with Nepal and Bhutan and the ITBP is designated to guard the 3,488-kilometre Line of Actual Control with China.

Rai said the major reasons for voluntary retirement, as indicated by these forces, are personal and domestic reasons, including children/family issues, health issues of self or family members, social/family obligations and commitments and for seeking better career opportunities.

He said the government takes a number of steps, including the rotation of units deployed in extreme hard and hard areas to normal areas and giving posting to the personnel near their home town during last two years of superannuation, to reduce these numbers.