EMN
Dimapur, April 15
The country’s oldest paramilitary and anti-insurgency force, the Assam Rifles, is no longer a male bastion. The security force has instated its very first women contingent. The Assam Rifles issued a press release on Thursday, April 14, informing about the development.
The 181-year old Assam Rifles has inducted the first batch of 100 women from among 212 recruits who were put through a yearlong training programme. They graduated from the Assam Rifles Training Centre and School in Nagaland’s Shokhuvi village, in Dimapur district, on April 6, the security force stated.
“The Assam Rifles under dual control of home and defence ministries, broke tradition last March to admit 127 women for training at its School in Dimapur after they were selected through recruitment rallies conducted across the country. 27 women didn’t clear the programme either on medical grounds or failed to clear basic tests,” the establishment said.
It was informed that three Indian Army lady officers were specially posted to the Dimapur school in March 2014 to plan, raise and institutionalise a separate training company for women recruits at the training centre.
“The company was named Lushai Company after a British era hill province that later became a district of undivided Assam and eventually the state of Mizoram,” the Assam Rifles stated.
“The newly-inducted women soldiers will be posted to various Battalions of the Force to be used for checking and interrogating women when needed, dispersing female mobs, crowd control and tackling agitations involving women,” Lt Gen HJS Sachdev, Director General of the Assam Rifles, was quoted as having said during the occasion.
The women soldiers will also be posted in all districts of Manipur under IGAR (South) and employed for various tasks. They will play a crucial role in avoiding accusations of human rights violations and projecting a clean image of the force, the Assam Rifles stated.
The Assam Rifles is the oldest paramilitary force of India. The unit can trace its lineage back to a paramilitary police force that was formed under the British in 1835 called Cachar Levy. Since then the Assam Rifles have undergone a number of name changes before the name Assam Rifles was finally adopted in 1917.
