Women in 'khaki' will soon touch a new high while rendering combat duties.
The CRPF, country's lead force for undertaking anti-Naxal operations, could soon deploy a unit of its women commandos to take on the Left wing extremists after it recently did a successful exercise in the jungles of Chhattisgarh.
Geared with special weapons and donning commando uniforms, a squad of about 100 women CRPF personnel were deployed for conducting operations and patrolling in the difficult jungles of the Maoist hotbeds of Dantewada and Bijapur in Chhattisgarh's Bastar.
According to official sources, the women did a successful stint for more than a week living and eating out in these hard areas and accomplished the job given to them.
They laid ambushes, did routine patrolling and even de-mined areas suspected to be having hidden Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and landmines.
This was the first time that women personnel were inducted to conduct anti-Naxal operations anywhere in the country.
The force, buoyed by the success, plans to take this initiative forward.
"The women commandos can be used for specific tasks in the anti-Naxal operations in the future. We have tested the waters successfully and it is a matter of great pride that women have broken the proverbial glass ceiling in tough operations like these which are considered a very impossible job in a conflict theatre," a senior official said.
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed over 85,000 personnel for these duties across Naxal violence affected states.
The force, which has the maximum number of women security personnel among all police and paramiltary forces, is also proposing to add 2,000 more women constables in the next five years which will bring the total strength of females in uniform in CRPF to 5,000 from the current 3,000.
