'Present RPF strength not enough for ensuring women's safety'

The present strength of RPF is not adequate for providing security on railway premises and on board trains, especially to women, a parliamentary committee has said while calling for the strength of the rail guardian force to be increased at the earliest.
Also, the Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women, in its report, said that having the women's compartment at the rear of a train poses a security threat for women as it is easy for a miscreant to enter or escape from the compartment after committing a crime.
The committee said that "it is of the strong view that the present strength of RPF is not adequate enough to provide required security to women passengers and to check crimes in stations and on board trains".

It said that, hence, the strength of RPF personnel should be increased at the earliest.
"The sanctioned strength of Railway Protection Force (RPF) is about 76,000, (but) the current strength is around 55,850. The railways have informed that around 17,000 RPF recruits are undergoing initial training at various training institutes and will shortly be available for field duties," said the report of the 30-member committee.
Also, the committee said that to address new challenges to security, RPF personnel should be provided with the necessary hi-tech gadgets and state-of-the-art training.

There are at present 1,400 women personnel functioning in RPF while another 1,000 are undergoing initial training. A proposal for creation of 4,192 posts to be exclusively filled by women is pending approval from the Finance Ministry.

Meanwhile, on the topic of the women's compartment, the panel said, "In the wake of several cases of crimes against women on board trains... Railways should reconsider their policy of placement of women's compartments and should explore the ways and means to position it in the middle of trains."
"In passenger and local trains... The position of women's compartments should inevitably be at the middle of the train," the panel said in its report in Lok Sabha.