From law and order to counter-terrorism, CRPF is juggling multiple roles

CRPF is engaged in various tasks, from law and order, internal security and counter-terrorism operations to election duties. Yet, the personnel feel they do not get their due

Shyam Babu had a sense of foreboding after a Naxal ambush on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) killed 76 jawans in Dantewada in April 2010. The CRPF constable from Uttar Pradesh was posted in Chhattisgarh at the time, and the deadliest attack by Naxals on Indian soldiers made him reconsider his job. His peasant father and some relatives, however, persuaded him to continue, saying there was nothing to return to at their home in Kanpur Dehat district.

On February 14 this year, Shyam Babu was among the 39 CRPF jawans who lost their lives when a suicide bomber rammed into their bus in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

Kamlesh, his younger brother, says, “He took a lot of trouble for the family and rebuilt our house, which was kutcha earlier.” 

Shyam Babu had joined the force right after finishing school and had been working for 11 years, moving from Chhattisgarh to Madhya Pradesh and J&K. His wish was to get a transfer to be closer to his home and family — his parents, wife and two young children.

The largest of the five groups under the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), the CRPF is engaged in various tasks, from law and order, internal security and counter-terrorism operations to election duties. Yet, despite performing demanding roles, the personnel feel they do not get their due.

S N Reddy, a former CRPF sub-inspector who heads the Telangana unit of the All India Central Paramilitary Forces Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association, opted for voluntary retirement after working for two decades so that he could focus on the education of his son and daughter. He started a business as a travel agent. 

Reddy joined the CRPF as a lower division clerk in 1967. His stint took him to Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh and J&K — where in the early ‘80s, he recalls, the jawans could take public transport with civilians without a second thought. That time is, however, long gone.

Today, “everybody is eager to retire after 20 years, as they are overworked,” he says. “Hundreds are leaving the CRPF every year, either on voluntary retirement or superannuation. They have to complete a minimum of 20 years for pension benefits, but some leave before that because of the poor conditions,” he adds.

The CRPF originated in 1939, initially raised as the Crown Representative’s Police with two battalions in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh. Its main objective was to protect British residents. Initially used to carry out operations against dacoits, the CRPF guarded the border with Pakistan until the creation of the Border Security Force (BSF) in 1965. Its personnel are also deployed at critical installations such as Parliament, where they shot down the five terrorists who had launched an attack in 2001.

Along with the CRPF, four other forces — BSF, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force and Sashastra Seema Bal — were reclassified as CAPF in March 2011. These come under the home ministry and were earlier considered paramilitary forces, which comprise the Assam Rifles (also under the home ministry) and the Special Frontier Force.

Former officials of the paramilitary forces and CAPF have often raised demands related to pension, facilities such as the armed forces canteens and grant of martyr status to casualties. 

P S Nair, general secretary of the All India Central Paramilitary Forces Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association and former CRPF officer, iterates there are two kinds of pension rules — one for the armed forces and another for the paramilitary and CAPF under the central civil services (CCS) rules.

“The first line of defence is the paramilitary. But we are not getting suitable benefits after retirement or while serving,” says Nair. The association has been demanding separate armed force service and pension rules instead of CCS, One Rank One Pension similar to the armed forces, and exemption of goods and services tax from central police canteens as in the case of the armed forces’ Canteen Stores Department outlets.

“The army also has the Directorate General Resettlement (a defence ministry branch that assists ex-army men to train and acquire skills for a second career), but there is nothing for us,” Nair says.

And then in 2004, the government introduced a contributory pension scheme for the paramilitary and CAPF. It brought them under the National Pension Scheme and stopped regular pension to these troops. What this means is that unlike the armed forces, where the pension comes from the government, CAPF and paramilitary troops  now partly fund their own pension.

CRPF spokesperson M Dhinakaran also points out that all states extend benefits to the army, from educational reservation to casualty cover, but for the CRPF there are no uniform benefits. 

Days after the Pulwama terror attack, meanwhile, the home ministry increased the risk and hardship allowance for paramilitary and CAPF soldiers serving in the most disturbed areas.

With 246 battalions and a personnel strength of 325,000, the CRPF is the leading force in counter-insurgency with deployments in three major sites of internal conflict: J&K, left-wing extremism-affected areas and the Northeast. Each battalion has seven companies. At any point of time, six of these are deployed, while the seventh undergoes rotational training for eight weeks.

In the past five to six years, Dhinakaran says, “the force has got stretched”. While in the army a period of hard duty is followed by time spent with one’s family — peace posting after field posting — such a concept is dying for the CRPF, he adds. “Our personnel do not get any respite. Training gets affected because of lack of time, not facilities. Family life also gets affected, more than in the other forces.”

According to Danvir Singh, former commanding officer of 9 Sikh Light Infantry and associate editor, Indian Defence Review, the army has been kept out of counter-insurgency operations such as those in left-wing extremism- affected areas to ensure that its defence preparedness does not suffer. “Left-wing extremism is away from the troubled borders, so paramilitary and the CRPF were inducted into a military role — one they were not designed for,” he says.

Recommending structural changes, Singh suggests that while employing the CRPF in counter-insurgency and warlike situations, the jawans shouldn’t be  under the control of a district superintendent of police. “The superintendent of police is bound to look at it from a law and order perspective. If you are using a particular force for military operations, it should be structured on the lines of the military, be it in terms of training, operations or logistics,” he says.

If death in conflict areas is an obvious occupational hazard for the people in fatigues, suicide is a sly killer. According to government data, over 930 police personnel, including those from the paramilitary forces and CAPF, have ended their lives in the last five years.

Nimesh Desai, director, Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences, Delhi points to an insurmountable and inherent contradiction that the forces are faced with: how do you accept weakness when you are supposed to be infallible and strong?

Aspects such as awareness and help-seeking behaviour have to be handled differently with the military and paramilitary compared to the general population, he says, acknowledging that the authorities have become sensitive to this in the last two decades.

“The suicides and fratricides may or may not be linked with psychiatric illness. But more than half the time it is a combination of a non-specific stress trigger and the availability of arms,” Desai says. 

“Suicides occur more when a jawan returns to duty after a short visit home. A more considerate leave policy would help further,” he adds. As would the recognition that the force, which has often been the first responder, deserves better.